Successor of Shadows
by WaveHarmonics
Summary: Darkness. All he ever knew was darkness. Abandoned since birth, trained to be a weapon for the village out of hatred and fear and left to die in a mission. Then rescued and adopted by a ancient hidden village that holds great powers and secrets. Will he be able to overcome the future obstacles? Or fall like many before him? The shadows shall rise again.
1. Chapter 1

Hidden

In the Elemental contingent, there are 5 great shinobi villages which are greater than the other shinobi villages in wealth, size and power. These 5 shinobi villages are Sunagakure (Village Hidden by Sand), Kumogakure (Village Hidden by Clouds), Kirigakure (Village Hidden by Mist), Iwaagakure (Village Hidden by Rocks), and Konohagakure (Village Hidden by Tree Leaves). Each of these villages produces their own shinobis with their own unique abilities for the interest of their country and Daimyo.

Sunagakure or the Village Hidden by Sand is the main shinobi village of wind country and is considered to be the weakest compared to the other four great shinobi villages. The village was founded by the First Kazekage who was able to gather the violent desert dwelling warriors under his control with his power. The First Kazekage was then able to create a home for them and help them train in their shinobi arts. The village is also known for its ingenious style of fighting during the past three shinobi wars such as the use of puppets for weapons, extremely advance forms of poisons, and their mastery of elemental wind techniques. However, due to the popularity of Konoha due to their victory during the third shinobi war, the Wind Daimyo began outsourcing missions to Konoha which led to both economical and military strength of Sunagakure. This led the village to make the Jinchuriki a weapon due to his ability to harness the power of Shukaku to defend the village. Sunagakure has an alliance with Konoha due to its need of military support and trade.

Kumogakure or the Village Hidden by Clouds is the main shinobi village of lightning country and is considered to be the most militaristic compared to the other great shinobi villages. The village is known to have the largest military personels compared to the other great shinobi villages and is nearly equal in military power with Konoha. It was founded by the First Raikage nearly the same time Konoha was founded. The village is well known for its large military numbers and mastery of elemental lightning techniques. It is also well known for its jinchuriki to tame and have full control over their Bijus which the village take advantage from. Kumogakure and Konoha shares a lot of violent history towards each other's and maintains very volatile relationship.

Kirikagure or the Village Hidden by Mist is the main shinobi village of water country. The village was founded by the First Mizukage. Kirikagure is known their unique ability of using mist in their ninjutsu and their skilled swordsmen. However, Kirikagure is also known for its internal conflict such as civil wars and bloodline conflict that have occurred many times in their history. The village is considered to be the fourth most power shinobi village.

Iwagakure or the Village Hidden by rocks is the main shinobi village at Earth Country. The village is known for the rock hard attitude of its shinobi; as soon as the Tsuchikage gives an order, the Iwa shinobis will do so without hesitation and would do their best to complete it even to their deaths. Iwagakure is also known for its earth release ninjutus techniques and has the strongest defensive capabilities. It is also a village that has one of the largest military personals that rivals that with Kumogakure. The village has a very volatile relationship with Konoha due to the causalities that the village sustained during the fourth shinobi war by the Fourth Hokage.

Konoha or the Village Hidden by Tree Leaves is the main shinobi village of fire country. It was created during the Warring States Period by two of the most powerful shinobis of their time; Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama who are descendants of the Sage of Six Paths. Since the creating of the village it has prospered to great levels. It has remained victorious over the next three shinobi wars which have gained them a reputation of producing very powerful ninjas. Since then they have been the favorite of many clients for due to their fame and have been used most often compared to the other hidden villages for mission and favors, thus making it the largest and richest hidden village throughout the nations.

However, unknown throughout all the nations of the elemental contingent is a small hidden village. This village which is hidden from all the other villages, works on their own mysterious ways and holds a mysterious power. A village that has lasted so long that it even predates the time the Sage of Six Paths came to being. It hides itself from plain sight so it can protect itself from the other great villages and to not be involved in the wars of others. A Village Hidden in Shadows.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In the cold night of October 10, the villagers and shinobi of Konoha are peacefully going through their daily routines. The villagers are in their shops selling goods and enjoying themselves by telling each other's jokes or talking about news and new gossips. The children can be seen running around the streets playing with each others in a game of tag. Shinobis are all in their homes relaxing themselves since the shinobi war has ended few months ago or drinking in the night bars and enjoying the company of their fellow friends. It was peaceful times for Konoha due to their victory during the shinobi war. However, peace never lasts forever.

Unknown to the people in Konoha, screams could be heard in an abandoned house near the border of fire country

"AAAHHHH!" Kushina cries out in pain

"Push, Kushina! Push!" yells Biwako Sarutobi

"It coming! Aaahhh!" Kushina yells while giving a bone crushing squeeze on Biwako's hand

Biwako then sees a head coming out "Kushina! Your nearly there! Just push a bit more!

The seal in Kushina's stomach then begins to glow "Aaahhhh! It hurts!" Kushina yells

"Your almost there! Minato, how is the seal holding!" said a Biwako with a worried expression.

Minato is beside Kushina with his hands on the seal putting a green glow of charka in to reinforce the seal "I'm trying! It's getting more difficult!"

Suddenly, the crying of a new born infant could be heard echoing in the room.

Biwako smiles when she saw the baby then wraps a towel around it. "It's a boy"

She brings the infant to Kushina and gave it to her slowly. Kushina then slowly wraps her arms around the blanket where the baby is. She watches him lovingly as tears of joy runs down her face "Naruto, My Naruto." she says in a very weak and tired voice.

The baby then wraps his hand on one of Kushina's finger while it sleeps peacefully. She then felt a warm sensation when the baby did this. All the pain of child birth just disappeared and was replaced with a happy feeling of finally having a loving family of being a mother. She then felt compelled to protect this baby and give it everything it needs to live a happy life "Naruto, I promise I will protect you. I will love you and be there for you whenever you need it" She says in a soft wisper.

Minato happily smiles at the scene beside Kushina, happy that he is now a father and couldn't wait to hold his son for the first time, but the smile soon fades when he felt an unknown presence in the room. He then turns to the front of the door a figure began to emerge from a dark moving spiral portal. When it fully emerged, a figure can be seen wearing a dark cloak with its hood on and dark wooden sandals. The figure is also seen to be wearing an orange spiral mask where the only hole is where the right eye would be.

Minato goes in a defensive position to protect his wife and son from the unknown intruder. "_How did he know this location? No one was supposed to know of this event._" thought Minato.

The said figure then disappears again by being sucked from a dark spiral moving void that appears to originate at his right eye in front of Minato. He then appears behind Biwako and stabs her behind her neck. He then begins to grab both Kushina and the baby but Minato known to be the fastest shinobi in Konoha throws a three point kunai at the figures head. However, the kunai just went through his head without the figure suffering from any damage. Once the kunai is behind his head, Minato then appears behind him where the kunai was supposed to be at that specific time. He then grabs another kunai to stab him from behind but the said figure turned around and grabbed Minato's wrist to stop him from stabbing him. He then used the Kamui to teleport him and Minato away from the abandoned house.

Kushina is still lying down on the bed with Naruto tightly being wrapped around her arms inside the abandoned house. She is now really scared, not for her own life but the life of her child especially because she is currently too weak to fight due to the effort of child birth. If the Kyubi is released then not only will the Konoha be destroyed but her son would die due to Naruto being so close to Kushina right now. She then uses her left arm to grab anything that could be used as a weapon at the dead body of Biwako so that she can feel at least a little safer knowing she has a weapon to defend herself and Naruto. However, the figure with the orange mask began to appear from the floor where the dead body of Biwako is at. The figure then looked at Kushina as if observing her actions. Kushina then began to hold Naruto very tightly as if he was her lifeline and prayed to kami that they would be spared.

"Please, please don't hurt him….. I will do anything you want. Just please let him live, he is only a baby. Please… I beg of you" Begged Kusina while crying.

The said figure did not say anything for a few seconds as if he is thinking of something, he then grabbed Kushina while she is still holding Naruto.

"Leave the infant here, he would be much safer here than he is if he is closer to Konoha. I will inform my agents of him and they will keep him safe. You have my word if you come with me" said the masked figure in a deep voice.

Kushina hesitated for a while as she is thinking of what the masked man have said. "_If I disagrees then he will just take me and Naruto with him. That will only end up killing Naruto because he is close to me and my seal is beginning to break which would release the kyubi. He also appears to only want me and not the child_". Kushina can also spot a small expression of pity from the masked man that is directed to her son. After a few seconds she agreed to the masked man by nodding at him. If there is any chance her son would be safe, she will take it. The masked man then motioned her to put the Naruto on the bed.

Kushina then looked at the sleeping figure of her son at her arms and whispers while crying "Naruto, I am very sorry for not being able to keep my promise to you. I'm a horrible mother for leaving you so soon especially in your birthday… I always wanted to be with you ever since I felt your first kick inside me, to watch you walk, to watch you grow,…to have a girlfriend, to get married... to have a family of your own….. Right now, the only thing I say for you is Naruto.. Don't be picky.. Eat lots and grow strong.. Make sure that you bath every day and stay warm.. ...Also... Don't stay up late.. You need lots of sleep.. And make friends.. You don't need a lot of friends... Just a few.. Ones you can really, really trust... I wasn't good at it..., but keep up with your studies and practice your ninjutsu hard.. Remember that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.. ..So don't get too depressed if you can't do something well... Respect your teachers and upperclassmen at the Academy.. Oh, and this is important... It's about the Three Prohibitions for a shinobi.. Be extra careful about lending and borrowing money.. Put your mission wages into your savings account... No alcohol until you're twenty.. Too much can ruin your health, so drink in moderation.. Another Prohibition is women... I'm a woman, so I don' know too much about this but.. All you need to remember is that this world is made up of men and women.. So it's natural to take an interest in girls.. But just don't get hooked on bad women... Find someone just like me but now someone who can break a promise like me... Naruto, from now on, you're going to face lots of pain and hardship.. Be true to yourself.. Have a dream and have the confidence to make that dream come true.. There's so much…...…. Oh, so much more that I want to passs on to you… I wish I could stay with you longer…...….. Naruto, I love you…...….." She then hold on to Naruto tightly for a minute, not wanting to let go but had to when the masked figure put a hand at her shoulder. She then hesitantly put Naruto on the bed slowly while sobbing. She then grabs the hand of the masked figure while her eyes remain at the sleeping figure of her son. Slowly the void consumed both the figure and Kushina to teleport them near Konoha.

**Outside near Konoha (Minato vs Tobi)**

Minato and the masked figure appeared in an open area near Konoha. Minato was then able to get loose from the figures grip at his wrist and was able to perform three back flips to have some distance to the masked figure in front of him. The fourth Hokage then grabbed himself a three point kunai in his pouch and goes for a defensive position while the figure remained in a relax position.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Demanded the Fourth Hokage.

"It seems to be obvious of what I want from my actions a few moments ago" said the masked figure in a deep voice

Minato thought for a few seconds to think of what the masked figure has said. Then it hit him "_The kyubi!_" "You are here for the Kyubi aren't you?! You are here to take it from Kushina?!"

The figure then looked at his left to the direction of where Konoha is "Yes, when it is freed I will control it and use its power to destroy Konoha"

"Impossible! No one can control a biju."

"Don't be so sure. Minato." The figure then looked at Minato in the eye. His right eye then glowed red to Minato's surprise.

"The Sharingan, that means you're an Uchiha" said a shocked Minato while still looking at his eye. He knows the power of the Sharingan and its ability to control tailed beasts when it evolves to the final level.

"Yes, Minato. The Sharingan, I will use its power to control the beast to destroy the very village I helped create"

"What?!"

"Allow me to answer your first question as to who I am. I am Uchiha Madara.

"But that should be impossible! Hashirama killed him at the Valley of the End and that was about 300 years ago"

"What if I survived that fight? No one was able to find my body and there are always ways for a person to extend one's lifespan.

Minato observed the figure that claims to be Madara. "_If he is who he says he is, then I have to be very careful and finish him quickly. I don't have enough skill and power to face one of the legendary founders of the village. I also know that he uses a space-time ninjitsu, that is why my attacks go through him but there must be a weakness of some sort_" Thought Minato. Minato then got eight of the three pointed kunai all between each of his fingers from his pouch and threw it at different parts of the open area all surrounding the figure. He then grabbed another of his unique kunai and charged at the figure who claims to be Madara. Minato then began to attack him in all sides by teleporting at different sides from the masked figure but the said figure blocked many of his attacks and letting it pass through him. After a minute has passed, Minato was able to stab the figure at his neck but to his surprised the figure turned to smoke.

Minato looked at the spot where the figure should be standing while having a shocked expression on his face "_A kage bushin! He was just trying to buy some time by distracting me. Then that means the real one is with Kushina_" thought the Fourth Hokage. He then teleports himself to the abandoned house where Kushina and Naruto should be, but to his shock he can only find Naruto on top of the bed sleeping and a dead Biwako on the floor. He then hears a loud roar in the direction where Konoha should be.

"_Damit! I have to find a way to stop it_!" Minato then looks at the baby Naruto as if he is thinking of something. After a few seconds he then grabbed the sleeping Naruto from bed while giving him a sad and pitiful look and teleported himself near Konoha. He is able to teleport himself anywhere near Konoha because Minato placed his three point Kunais in different checkpoints inside and near the village.

Minato then arrives to one of the checkpoints outside Konoha and sees the Kyubi is on its way to destroy the village of hidden trees which is only a kilometer away from the Kyubi. He sees that the a standing figure who claims to be Madara and a lying Kushina on top of the Kyubi's head he also sees many of the shinobis of Konoha is desperately trying to push the demon away from their village. Minato then creates a kage bushin and gives the bushin Naruto and orders it to stay put with the baby. He then disappears by using Hirasin.

Minato appears between Konoha and Kyubi and performs a series of hand signs. "**Kuchiyose no Jutsu**" yelled Minato when placing his right palm on the floor. Suddenly a large smoke appeared all around him then Minato could be seen on top of the head of a giant orange toad who's size is similar to that of the Kyubi. The said toad is color orange with some bits of red, he is wearing a loose blue gi and white cloth wrapping around his waist which appears to be his belt. He also appears to have 2 large blades at the right side of his back and he is also smoking a pipe at his left lips.

"**Minato, why did you summon me at this late hour?!**" said the giant toad with a very annoyed voice, his eyes looking on top of his head to look at Minato.

"Gamabunta, I really need your help right now."

Gamabunta then looks infront of him and a shock expression appears on his face. "**The Kyubi! Minato, How did you get into this much trouble?! You know I am no match against a tailed beast!**"

"You don't have to fight it; I just need you to hold it in place long enough so I can break the connection from the Uchiha on top of him who is controlling it with his Sharingan." Said Minato

"**Why do I get the feeling that I am going to be roosted by doing this?**" Gamabunta then reached for one of his blades and unshed it. "**Alright, but if we ever make it out of this alive, you owe me an explanation to how this happened.**"

"Alright" said Minato

Gamabunta then charged to the Kyubi, when Gamabunta is close to his range he then uses a right diagonal slash attacks to the Kyubi with his katana like blade with his two hands to insert more power. The Kyubi was able to use his left arm to block the blade and push it away. But this left the Kyubi a slight opening which Gamabunta took to his advantage. He then grabbed the Kyubi in a tight hug to restrain the beast from moving.

Minato then used this opportunity to grab one of his unique kunai and jumped out of Gamabunta's head to the Kyubi's and charge at the masked figure. He then threw the kunai while still running to his opponent when he is three feet away from him to his chest but it just passed through him. When he is just a feet away from him and not losing his momentum, the masked figure was about to punch him in the side of his face. Minato then disappeared and appeared behind him and performed a Rasengan at his back which threw the figure away from the Kyubis head and making him loose control. Minato then grabbed Kushina and teleported them to an open field near the grappling of Gamabunta and Kyubi.

He then dropped the weak Kushina in the floor and disappeared and appeared again in the same spot with Naruto on his hands. Kushina was shocked to see his son again and was happy to see her son again. Tears of joy can be seen in her eyes.

"Minato, please give Naruto to me." She said in a weak but happy voice.

Minato looked at her with an expression of pity and sadness, which scared Kushina. "I can't Kushina. I need him to seal the Kyubi inside of him or else the Kyubi will destroy the village" said Minato with little conviction

This shocked Kushina. She is now very afraid of what that might do to her son, to be a sacrifice to carry a burden which will hunt him for the rest of his life. "No Minato! Don't! There must be another way!" Kushina begged desperately.

"Kushina, you know that only an Uzumaki can hold the Kyubi at bay due their large charka reserve and unique chakra. There is no other way." Minato said sadly and could not look at his wife a her eyes.

"No! Minato please don't. Use me instead; You can still seal the Kyubi in me! Seal the Kyubi inside of me so when I die, it can die with me." begged Kushina

"I can't do that Kushina. Our village will need to Kyubi as our weapon; if the Kyubi is gone then the other elemental nations with their own Jinchuriki will attack Konoha in its weakened state. That will lead to the destruction of Konoha all the people in Konoha will die or be slaves" said Minato still looking away and feeling guiltier and painful every second.

"Minato please! Don't do this!" Kushina begged desperately. She knows the life of a Jinchuriki, she did not suffer that life because the people in Konoha did not know that she hold the Kyubi. Only the Hokages and their family know she has the Kyubi but did not told anyone about it due to the will of Mito Uzumaki so that the Jinchurikis in Konoha will live a peaceful life. Jinchurikis are trained to be weapons for the village due to their power and are frowned upon by people for the damage the demon inside them has caused to countless people. They live miserable lives and are denied of their free choice.

"I'm sorry Kushina, but it is for the best of Konoha." said Minato with a sad small voice. He really wanted to cry at this point and give Naruto to his wife and tell them they will be okay and they can be a family but he knows he has a duty to do as he swore to the village that he will do everything in his power to help his village when he became the Hokage. He then disappeared with Naruto in his arms, leaving a crying Kushinain a fetus position. Kushina then whispered "No, no, no, no, no, no… I'm so sorry Naruto… for not being able to stop your pain. I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Kushina then felt her life leaving her as she was consumed by a black void with the thought of failing to protect her son. She lost her will to live and died a few seconds later due to the trauma of knowing her son will suffer and she cannot do anything about it.

Minato still carrying Naruto on his arms appeared on top of Gamabunta who looks very tired and all beaten up and one can also see a scar mark across his left eye. He then drew a seal on Naruto's stomach for preparation for the sealing "Gamabunta can you told Kyubi for 5 seconds" yelled Minato.

"**I can try**" said the giant toad

Gamabunta then charged at Kyubi again to restrain it by performing a bear hug from behind. Minato formed a series of hand signs and yelled **"Shiki Fujin**". Suddenly a dark void appeared behind him and used its long dark shadowy hands to impale and grab the Kyubi who is now struggling desperately to be released from the Death Gods grip. The Shinigami then grabbed Naruto and placed his own seal to reinforce the seal that Minato has made. It then pulled the Kyubi with one hand and put it inside the stomach of Naruto, thus the Kyubi is no more in sight.

The Shinagami then faced Minato who is now looking directly at the Death God. All that can be seen from the Death God was a deep black void that appears to go endless. Minato knew the consequence of using the seal. The price for the seal will be to sacrificing his life to the Death God. He then closed his eyes and kneeled to the Shinigami in preparation for his soul to be taken away, but after a few seconds passed nothing happened.

Minato who is now confused opened his eyes to look at the void, which appears to be looking directly at him.

"Aren't you going to take my soul" said a nervous Minato

"**You will live for now**." said the Shinigami in a calm and deep monotone voice.

"What?!" yelled a shocked Minato

"**I said that you will live. I will not take your soul for now. I find it that it would be of my interest if I let you live and I am patient. You will die soon anyway, no one can escape death, and you will die one way or another**." said the Shinigami

Minato is now speechless and doesn't know if he should be happy or nervous of what will happen in the future.

"**But remember this. No matter how you will end, be it by a person or a natural cause. Your soul will come back to me and I will be waiting for it. For there is no fair, there is no justice, there is just me.**" The shinigami then disappeared by fading away in front of Minato.

Minato just stayed in his spot kneeling for a couple of minutes, trying to comprehend that he is spared by the Death God. His lost his thoughts when he heard the crying of a baby. He then looked to his side and saw the baby Naruto crying on top of his blanket. Minato then picked up Naruto and wrap his arms around the baby figure. He then looked at the child with pity and sadness. He knows Naruto's will have a very hard life as a Jinchuriki especially when all of Konoha now knows of Naruto being a Jinchuriki due to all the shinobis looking at him when Minato is carrying the baby. He wanted to keep the child for his own but he has a duty to work for the best interest of the people in his village. He is willing to sacrifice his son for the sake of the people of the village.

"Kakashi." called Minato.

A young ANBU ninja with a dog mask walked towards his superior until he is in front of him.

"I want your men to call in the council members for a meeting and have some of your men retrieve the body of Kushina. She is located at training ground 57. I will head to the Hokage tower shortly" ordered the Forth Hokage

The dog masked ninja nodded and **Shunshin** away with a puff of smoke.

Minato while still carrying Naruto began to walk his way to Konoha to the Hokage tower. Feeling sadder every step he takes closer to the tower knowing he cannot protect his son from the people of his village because his duty is for the village. He cannot even tell the villagers that the baby is his son or that might raise a risk of a revolt in the village or worse a civil war due to their hatred for the Kyubi that attacked them. Now especially because the Kyubi killed about a quarter of the population of Konoha, the people will blame the deaths of their loved ones to the baby. "_There is no limit to human hatred and stupidity. They will only believe what they want to believe to satisfy their own feelings. How cruel this world is_" thought Minato. He just hoped his son would be spared from his suffereings but deep down he knows that Naruto will suffer for he must be the sacrifice for the village. Everything must be done for the people.

**Council Room**

The council room is a large rectangular room located inside the Hokage tower. In the room there is a long oblong table which that has a single chair at its front, twelve chairs at left side and another twelve at its right. The left side of the table consists of clan heads of all the clan that resides in Konoha who represents the ninjas while the right consists of civilian heads that represent the civilians of Konoha. Currently at all seats are full except for a single seat at the left side of the table where the head of the Senju clan should be due to the departure of Tsunade Senju during the Third Shinobi War. The civilians council and the heads of Aburame Clan, Akimichi Clan, Hyuga Clan, Inuzuka Clan, Kohaku Clan, Kurama Clan, Nara Clan, Sarutobi Clan, Shimura Clan, Yamanaka Clan and the Uchiha Clan are all present in the room. They are all quiet and are patiently waiting for their leader to arrive to tell them the news.

The front door of the council room then opened and everyone in the room turned their attention to the Hokage who walked to his chair with a child on his arms.

The Hokage then looked at everyone in the room. "I have ordered a council meeting to inform you all that the Kyubi threat has been dealt with" everyone began to relax once they heard that the Kyuubi threat has been dealt with and are mentally cheering that they are alive.

However, the council members then focused on the sleeping baby that is currently wrapped around their Hokage's arms.

"Hokage-sama, this is not the only reason why you summoned us, is it?" said Hiashi Hyuga looking at the baby with curiosity.

"No, I called all of you here to discuss about the possible future of our village. As all of you know, a Biju cannot be killed in any way unless an intervention from a divine being. The only way to stop a Biju is to seal it on a person and not just any person but a baby who's charka coils are not fully developed which would allow it to adjust the massive amount of charka the Biju will release to its container." Said Minato.

"So you're saying that the child that you are holding right now contains the Kyubi inside of him." Said Chouza Akimichi, Clan head of the Akimichi Clan

"Yes, I was able to seal the Kyubi inside this child who I found in the orphanage" said Minato with a hint of sadness that he cannot call him his son. "I would like to have a discussion on what should be done to the boy due to his status as a Jinchuriki"

Half of the civilian side of the council then went to an uproar, demanding the death of the child so that the Kyubi can be killed with it so they can avenge the deaths of the people who died stopping the Kyubi.

"Hokage-sama, we should execute the child immediately so that the demon inside him can die! Too many loved ones have been lost this day, there must be retribution!" said Kyo Sato who is in charge of Konoha financial management in the civilian side.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Who knows that maybe in the future, the Kyubi might influence the child to do its biding and release the beast. It might return again to destroy all of us." said Riku Ito, head of the Agricultural department.

The demand went on for a minute till an old man with wrappings around his head, right eye and right arm with a cane stood from his seat. Everyone then became quiet to focus on the old figure.

The old man then looked directly at Minato "Hokage-sama, it would be foolish and a waste of good talent if we just kill the Jinchuriki. The other 5 elemental nations have their own Jinchuriki and have used them to further their interest due to the Jinchuriki's ability to harness the power of their Biju. Now we have the Jinchuriki of Kyubi which is the most powerful of all the Bijus. I say we take the boy and train him to be our village's weapon. We can use him to make Konoha the greatest of all Hidden Villages and inflict fear on those who oppose us." said the old figure.

"Are you mad Danzo! The boy might release the Kyubi to destroy all of us!" said a civilian councilwoman beside Danzo.

Danzo looked at the woman "Not unless we make him devotedly loyal to us" He then looked at the Hokage. "We can make him devotedly loyal to Konoha that he will do anything we ask him to do without question. I know of all the loss that has suffered today, all those people and shinobis dying to protect the village they all loved from the Kyubi. We can show them their deaths are not in vain by making Konoha the most powerful and richest village in the world. With the Jinchuriki, we can lessen the deaths of our people from wars that might come in the future." A moment of silence occurred to let the others absorb the recommendation "With a weapon, Fathers doesn't have to lose their sons, sons doesn't have to lose their fathers, and wives doesn't have to lose their husbands. With this, the people of our village will not have to suffer the pain of losing love ones during war." said Danzo with strong conviction.

The council room then became very quiet for about two minutes, thinking of everything Danzo has said to them.

Minato then spoke "Assuming that this will be accepted, how will you make the boy loyal to Konoha?" said the Hokage.

"I can make him loyal to us by turning him to our emotionless weapon who will obey all our orders without question. Because he is only a child, we can easily manipulate his psychology. A child is like paper, you can write anything at it and they will believe it when they are young and their bodies can adopt much faster than an adult. Human emotions are relative to one's own experiences. We can also manipulate his emotions by letting villagers torturing him when he is young which will not be a problem to the villagers due to their hatred for the Kyubi that resides inside the boy. The only condition is that they should not kill him or hurt him too badly to the point that he becomes a cripple. This action is required so he would be able to survive the pain and stress from the special root training to completely suppress his emotions."

"What?!" shouted Minato

"This is because when a human experiences something very painful or stressful many times, he will begin to not being able to feel those emotions anymore or those feelings will become much weaker. We are capable of adopting in many situations. Our hormones releases chemicals or our impulses in the brain makes our emotions, the more one uses it, the less impact it will make because the body will be able to resist it better. We are simply going to take advantage of this so he can survive the brutal emotional and physical conditioning of the ROOT program. I will make him devotedly loyal to Konoha." said Danzo.

Minato and many of the council members were shocked of what they heard from Danzo, to torture a young child and use him as if he is a tool. After a few seconds Minato composed himself from his shock and now became angry.

"Why use that kind of method. Wouldn't it be better if we took care of him like a normal child with care! So that he will remain loyal to us!" yelled Minato with anger and disgust clearly shown on his face.

Danzo then looked at all the members of the council. "Many of you all know that kind of method is highly unpredictable with lower chance of success than the one I recommend. This is due to the fact that when a child is spoiled with pleasure or live a happy life feels that they can do whatever they want or feel like doing. Many of you also had kids that became very rebellious when they get older no matter how well you raised them. The method I am proposing has a higher chance of success than any other methods and it is a lot better to have an emotionless weapon who would obey orders than an emotional one that could disobey them. It is also a good way to relieve the anger of the villagers instead of killing him. The pain and sufferings are also necessary for him for the future when he turns old enough to use chakra. I will enlist him to the Root program when he turns five years old. The mind is weaken when one feels pain in a very young age and can easily be influenced. I know this because it has been done before." said Danzo before sitting down in his seat. The council remained quiet for a few minutes thinking about it while some put their heads down in acceptance over not being able to control their own child.

"He is only a child!" yelled Minato with anger to Danzo.

The root is a program to create highly trained ANBU black ops shinobis to perform high risk mission. Methods used in this program go against many human rights due to the extreme mental and physical torture they consider training. The shinobis that came from this program where known to be highly skilled and powerful but also emotionless. They appear to have no free will of their own and would blindly obey orders without protest due to the psychological doctrine that was given to them. The reason why it still exists is because the program actually helped the village greatly during their last war. Because of its effectiveness, the council decided to keep it running in case of another war that could occur in the future but is limited with the amount of people it can take to train and that the program can only take people who are willing to join the program. Even though it is voluntary, many people joined this program in hopes of making a name for themselves in the village or who are greatly devoted to their village that they are willing to sacrifice their life for it. It is considered a necessity for the survival of the village in the future.

"Sacrifices must be made for the greater good. Is a single young boy worth more than the entire population of the village? We are currently weak due to the Kyuubi, if we don't tell the other nations we have the Kyubi, they will attack us in our weakend state." said Danzo to Minato.

"How are you so sure that the boy will not go crazy and kill himself?" said an angry Minato

"I know for a fact that the tailed beasts will actually protect their containers and would not allow them to die unless needed because if the containers die, the tailed beast will feel an extreme amount of pain and would temporary die. This means that even when the boy wants to kill himself, he would not be able to due to the beast inside him." said Danzo while looking at Minato.

Minato is looking at Danzo with anger and disgust. "_How can they do this to a young boy?_" He thought. It saddens him greatly that he could not protect his son and wanted so much to just cry and hold his son dearly and protect him from the council members. "_How can I condemn my son to a life worse than death. Is the sacrifice really worth it? To put a child to such suffering. I don't know what to do. _" thought Minato.

Minato then looked at the entire council. "We will call on for a vote on what to do with the Jinchuriki. Should we use him as a weapon or should he live as a normal shinobi or have him executed" said Minato with sadness evident in his voice.

"I vote the child to be our weapon" said Fugaku Uchiha

"I vote for him to be our weapon as well" said Hiashi Hyuga

"I vote for normal shinobi" said Shibi Aburame.

"Weapon" said Chouza Akimichi

"Weapon" said Tsume Inuzuka

"This is troublesome. I vote for normal shinobi" said Shikaku Nara

"I vote for normal shinobi" said Hiruzen Sarutobi sadly when looking at Minato. He knows of Kushina being Minato's wife and the child in his arms is Minato's child.

"Weapon" said Inoichi Yamanaka

While six out of twelve of the civilian council voted for weapon, five wanted execution and one wanted normal shinobi.

Minato is feeling a great deal of pain and sadness but kept his expression neutral. He is about to condemn his own son to misery and pain, he can't even look at his son in the eyes anymore. He even thought that maybe it would be better if he just died instead of living a life of suffering. "_There is nothing I can do now, I don't have power to go against the vote of the council. I hope you can forgive me for this Naruto, but this is for the best. This is for the people of Konoha, one life is not greater than the life of the entire village._" Thought Minato with a very weak conviction and certainty.

"It is decided then… He will be a weapon for the village." said Minato with very little conviction.

"He will be put in an orphanage until he is old enough to be trained to be our weapon. What will be his name though?" said Danzo looking at Minato

Minato went silent for a minute. "His name will be Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto in honor for Kushina Uzumaki who had died defending the leaf from the Kyubi." said Minato with a small voice. He now feels like someone has stabbed a large blade to his heart and wanted to cry but he cannot show the council that he is related to the boy or more conflicts will occur.

Everyone in the council room nodded their heads while, accepting the name for the boy. Hiruzen gave Minato a sad look. The Hokage then gave the order that the meeting is over and everyone in the council room except Minato left the room to go back to their homes. Hiruzen gave Minato and the child one last glance before going out of the door, leaving Minato and his son by themselves in the room.

Minato then carried Naruto to his office and put him in the crib that is beside his desk and activated the privacy seals. He then looked at the sleeping figure of his son who appears so peaceful and quiet, not knowing of things to come. Minato then began to cry for being unable to save his family, for the death of Kushina, and not being able to protect his own son. He looked at him for hours, crying and moaning. "I'm so sorry Naruto….. Please forgive me…. I'm so sorry. Forgive me Kushina for being…. Useless. I wasn't able to keep our promise…. I'm sorry" whispered Minato who is now on the floor kneeling and holding onto the crib as if thinking that he would die if lets go of it. "Naruto….." said Minato before he lost consciousness and fell to the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

**3 years 7 months later**

A young three year old blonde boy can be seen walking towards a lake at a training ground in Konoha late at night. He is hair is dirty blonde from all the dirt, his clothes is just a simple dirty rag wrapped around his entire body and he appears that he haven't showered for months.

His life for the past three years has been hell. The orphanage he was in never took care of him and made sure that he would suffer. When he is just less than a year old, they refuse to give him a bed and blanket so he was left to sleep in the floor freezing to death. He was never able to be with the other children or else the lady who runs the orphanage will kick him till he lose consciousness and lock him in a small box for days. The lady never calls him by his real name, she would always call him demon or monster, so Naruto believes that is his real name. Naruto was also not given any of the food that the other children ate; he was always given cold leftovers from the garbage can where even the rats won't eat. He doesn't actually mind this because he thought that it is a lot better than being starved to near death.

When he became two years old, the lady in the orphanage placed him in a small pitch black room without windows as his new room. He was chained to the wall with no clothes and cannot go out of the room. The food that is delivered there are always rotten and barely edible and would only comes one every week so he tries his best to not move so he won't starve too quickly. The room was always cold inside, especially at night where he curls himself so that he can be warmed. When it rains he would lick the wall to drink some water from the moisture in the wall so that he won't be too thirsty. Every day when he can hear the sounds of children playing, Naruto would lie down and imagine that he is playing with other children while his parents are watching him. They would smile to him for being a good boy and tell him everything will be alright, but after the sounds are gone, he tries his best to sleep so he would not think of his suffering or feel his suffering.

When Naruto turned 3 years old, every week the lady in the orphanage would release his restraints at midnight and throw him outside where a large mob would be waiting for him with all types of weapons from a sword to a broken bottle. They would call him demon and beat him a near inch to death. No matter how much be cries and begs for it to stop and always asks why they are doing this to him, they would only intensify their beating and tell him because he was a bad boy. If he tries to resist from his pain, they would only hit him harder so he does his best to remain still and let them all hit. After the beatings, the orphanage lady would drag his bloody body to his dark room again and chain him then lock the door. Naruto would often try his best to keep his wounds open because if the mob sees that he is all healed, they would just intensify their beatings again. He always thought that he was a bad boy, that is why he gets the beatings but he doesn't know what he did that was bad.

He was only allowed to leave the room once a week only because every Sunday the Hokage would visit the orphanage. He would often play with the orphans or buy them breakfast or bring some gifts. The owner of the orphanage would always threaten him to not talk or show any expression to the Hokage or else he will not have anything to eat for over a week and would get a more painful beating. Afraid of being beaten again, whenever the Hokage visits the orphanage, Naruto would show a fake smile or try to avoid being close to the leader of the village. He is also afraid of the Hokage because he thinks that if he does something bad, he would be killed on the spot by the village leader.

One thing that Naruto observed when the Hokage came to visit the orphanage is that the Hokage seems to be looking at him the most or keeping an eye on him. Even when the Hokage is talking to the other adults, Naruto can sense that he is putting most of his attention on him which scares him a bit but tries his best to appear that he doesn't know about it. When Naruto looks at the Hokage when he thinks he is not looking. Naruto can see sadness and regret in his eyes which confuses him. The Hokage would even have a hard time looking directly at his eyes as if his eyes have something that frightens him. Another observation he was able to tell was that the Hokage would often try his best to be close to Naruto. He would even try to sit beside him and would try his best to try to talk to him when the others are busy. He would often ask him how he is or if the people are treating him right or is he having fun, which Naruto would just nod or give him a fake smile. The Hokage would just smile back but Naruto can tell that he didn't really believe him and can read pass through his expressions but did not say anything about it.

When the Hokage leaves the orphanage, the orphanage owner would then throw Naruto back to his room and lock him up and would not give him any food for nearly three days. The beatings would still continue everyday and would always make him depressed. This went on for 5 months till the lady in the orphanage threw him out of the orphanage never to come back or else she will kill him.

He then stayed on the streets, salvaging what he can to survive such as eating in the garbage can and using a box as a shelter during storms. He would often get beatings whenever some adults see him so he tries his best to not be seen by anyone. The young blonde is extra more cautious on his birthday because that is the day when they would haunt him, when a festival is held for to celebrate the defeat of the Kyubi by their Hokage. During that day, he gets the worse types of beatings where he is left with only an inch of his life and left in the streets to rot. The festival always makes him sad because when he looks at the festival he sees many of the other kids his age eating and playing around the streets having fun or enjoying themselves with their family. He would watch some kids his age in the park where their parents would laugh and play games with each other's or on their birthday where the kids receive gifts and gets hugs and kisses from their parents. It always felt like a knife had pierced his heart and would often cry inside the sewers so the mob in the festival won't find him. He would often draw a cake on the wall at the sewer and pretend that his parents are with him and smiling at him for being a good child. After two months later, the young three year old wanted to end it all so he sneaked his way to a lake without anyone seeing him or else he will be beaten again so that he can end all his sufferings.

Now the three year old Naruto is looking at the lake in a Konoha training ground. He then got a rope that he made by folding the long leaves he found in the training area and tied it to a large rock. He then tied the long leaf to his left leg. When he is near the edge of the deep lake with a rock beside him, he began to think of all the things that happen in his life and cried. How he thinks his parents abandoned him because he was a monster and killed themselves, how the people hurt him so that he can be forgiven and how he only wanted to be loved. He then hopes that maybe if he dies than he can meet his parents so they can be happy again, he will try his best to be the best son they can ever have.

Naruto then pushed the rock over the edge of the lake and fell with it. He didn't even hold his breath and allowed the water to flood his lungs. The young boy then closed his eyes, ready to see his family again. When he was about to die, he then felt something coming out of his stomach but ignored it and lost consciousness.

**Mindscape**

The young blonde woke up but found himself in a sewer like area with dark red walls at each side. There also appears to be a never ending dark roof and shallow water on the floor. Naruto knows that this is not a sewer in Konoha because he went to all the sewers to look for food or to hide from the mob. Curious to where he is he proceeded to move forward till he found a large gate with a piece of paper that says seal in kanji. It was pitch black behind the cage so Naruto went forward to find out what is really behind the cage. When the young blonde was about a foot away from the cage, a pair of giant red silted eyes looking directly at where he is standing. Out of fear and shock the young blonde back away from the cage but tripped and fell. He tried to run away but because of his shock his legs won't follow him. The giant creature looked at the young blonde with curiosity.

"**Do not be afraid. I am not going to hurt you.**" said the giant creature with a deep gentle voice.

The blonde still couldn't speak or stand because he is too scared and shocked from the creature behind the walls. Especially when he heard the creature is speaking to him.

"**Please calm down. As I said, I will not hurt you in any way. I just want to talk**" said the creature in a gentle manner.

Naruto looked at the fox for a minute then relaxed a bit but is still in scared of the creature in front of him.

"**I understand that you don't know how to speak very well yet because the people in the orphanage haven't taught you how to but I do know that you can understand me. Am I right?**" said the creature.

The boy was shocked that the creature in front of him knows his life in the orphanage but managed to calm himself down and nodded to the creature.

"_Impressive, this child must be extremely intelligent, being able to understand conversations even though he had no education on it and never interacted with anyone. He can understand me by deciphering what I meant and my expression based on evolutionary memory_" thought the creature. "**Alright, I am going to do all of the speaking so you should listen to what I have to say and if I ask you some questions all you have to do is nod if yes or shake your head for no. Is that understood?**" said the creature.

Naruto nodded hesitantly.

"**Good, now for the first question. Do you know who I am?**" said the creature looking at the young blonde.

Naruto shook his head to the creature.

"**Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am The Nine Tailed Demon Fox; the Kyubi no Yoko!**" said the giant creature with pride. He then showed his entire form to Naruto. He is appears to be a giant orange colored fox with sharp canines, pointed ears, sharp claws, silted eyes and with nine tails moving behind him. He was about a size of an eight story building and looking directly at Naruto.

Naruto looked at the giant fox with shock due to its large and powerful form, but then became confused.

The fox saw his confusion. "**You don't know me don't you?**" said the Kyubi. Not surprised at all that the child never heard of him. He is only 3 years old!

The boy shook his head to the fox hesitantly, afraid that he is insulting him for not knowing who he is.

"**Well to say it simply, I am a biju. A biju is an immortal demon with tremendous power and are completely made up of charka. I will explain to you what charka is soon enough, so don't question me yet about it. There are nine of us in total in this world, where the number of tails tells us how strong we are. I have nine tails therefore I am the strongest of them all. I have the power to destroy mountains and landforms with just a whip of my tail and create tsunamis by my roar.**" said Kyubi to the young blonde.

Naruto looked at the fox with awe and fear. The power the beast in front of him has. The creature in front of him is capable of killing him without so much of an effort.

Then a thought came to him. The young boy then looked at his surroundings and gave a curious look to the fox that is behind the cage.

"**Yes, we are now currently inside your mind. Therefore I am inside you.**" The Kyubi said to the boy.

Naruto then gave a shocked expression to the fox but after a few seconds he put his head down and looked sad because he finally realized why he was a monster.

The fox saw the sad expression "**You are not a monster**"

Naruto then put his head up to look at the fox. Shocked that he knows what he is thinking.

"**I know what you are thinking because as I said. This is your mindscape or inside your mind so I know what is going on in your head.**" said the fox to the young boy.

The boy then gave a nod but he is still very confused as to how a giant fox is inside him.

The Kyubi saw his confusion "**As I told you before, I am a Biju and one thing about all Bijus is that they cannot be killed in any way because they are immortal. The only way to defeat a Biju is to seal them to a human. When I was released 3 years ago, the Hokage had no choice but to seal me to you in order to prevent me from escaping. Due to me being inside you now, you are now what you call a Jinchuriki which literally means Power of Human Sacrifice. A Jinchuriki is a human with a tailed beast sealed within them. They all have a large charka reserve due to our presence which increase the size of their chakra coils and can have some of their tailed beast's abilities. With training, Jinchuriki can access the chakra of the Biju in dire situations.**" said the Kyubi to the young Naruto.

Naruto nodded in understanding in front of the large nine tailed Biju. He is both amazed and sad. He is amazed that he can be able to perform some abilities that a Biju possess but is also sad for finding out why the villagers hated him so much. He then felt angry at them for blaming him on something that he had no choice or control.

"**Now, I would like to ask you another question?**" said the Kyubi to Naruto, who is now looking at him directly at his eyes. Naruto calmed himself down from his anger and looked at the giant fox.

"**Do you know your name?**" said the Kyubi.

Naruto just nodded to the Kyubi, which actually shocked the demon because the boy should not know his name because nobody told him.

"**What is it?**" said the Kyubi with curiosity.

"d..de…de…mon…demon" said Naruto to the Kyubi.

"**NO!**" yelled the Kyubi in a very harsh tone with a deep frown on his face. The Kyubi then began to glow bright orange and giving off a tremendous amount of killing intent. He is now extremely livid about how can the villagers force a young boy to call himself a demon. "_To do this to an innocent child and call me a demon. It disgusts me to no end. Humans are the true demons that walk around these lands. To be so blinded to their desires that they are willing to hurt a young child to satisfy their anger towards me._" thought the Kyubi, not noticing that Naruto is now extremely frightened from the killing intent the fox is releasing and is covering his face with his hands and tightly closing his eyes, thinking the fox would hurt him.

The Kyubi then calmed down a bit when he saw the fearful expression of the young boy. He lowered his killing intent and looked at the boy with calm but sad eyes.

"**No, you are not a demon.**" The Kyubi stated.

The blonde boy then opened his eyes and lowered his arms to look at the giant fox if he is going to hurt him. When he saw that the fox is just looking at him calmly, he relaxed a bit and looked directly at the creature's eyes. He then gave the fox a tearful sad look.

The Kyubi looked at the boy for a few seconds and felt pity for him. He then sighed. "**You are not a demon. The villagers called you that because they wanted to hurt you so they can hurt me. Many even thinks that you are me because you contain me but you are not. You are you and I am me. Just because I am inside you doesn't mean that you are the demon itself. I am the prisoner and you are the guard or the prison itself. Which are two completely different things. So don't believe them and don't name yourself demon because you are not.**" stated the Kyubi while looking at directly at Naruto.

The blond boy relax himself a bit when he heard this and looked at the fox at his eyes and gave him a sad but happy look to express his relief that he is not a bad child or a demon. The Kyubi gave him a look of pity especially of what he has to say next.

"**Child, your true name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. It was the name your parents gave you before you were born. And yes, I do know your parents**" said the Kyubi when he saw Naruto gave him a shock expression when he said his parents.

The Kyubi then gave Naruto a sad look "**You mothers' name is Kushina Uzumaki. She was my container before you had me and she is also a very fine young woman. She loved you greatly and I know that it was some of the happiest days of her life when you were inside her. She would sing to you every night before going to bed when she was still pregnant and imagined of all the great things that she wanted to do for you. I know because I was inside her since she was just a baby.**" The Kyubi then gave a small frown of anger for the next information he is going to tell. "**Your fathers' name on the other hand is Minato Namikaze. You might know him as the Forth Hokage or the Yondaime Hokage**" said the Kyubi with a frown.

Naruto was shocked that the leader of his village was his father. He then looked at the Kyubi directly in the eyes to see if there were any signs of lies or deception but he could not find any. The young blond was not moving for a few minutes; too shock to even move from his spot. Many thoughts and emotions are running through his head. Emotions such as shock that his father is the leader of the village, happy that his father is still alive and they might be together again, sad that his father left him or doesn't know that he is alive, and angry because his father was never there for him when he is hurt or needed him the most.

The Kyubi then spoke after 10 minutes to break Naruto's train of thought. "**Do you want me to explain the entire story of what happened to both your parents and how it led it to you being hurt and alone.**" said the Kyubi with sadness in his voice.

Naruto hesitated when he heard this because he was afraid of knowing the truth. He thought that maybe he did something really bad that led them to abandon him or that he was useless and found no use of him so they threw him away. But Narutos' desire to know was greater than his fear of knowing the truth so he slowly nodded to the fox in front of him.

The Kyubi then explained the entire event of what occurred during the time of his birth; from the masked man entering the abandoned house to after the council meeting when Minato was crying when he was in the crib. He also told Naruto of the last message that Kushina left when she was taken away by the masked man.

Naruto absorbed the entire story and began crying in the middle till the end of the story since when the Kyubi told Naruto of Kushina's last message to him.

When the story was finished, Naruto immediately went forward through the cage while still crying and hugged the right palm of the Kyubi which made the Kyubi stiff due to the shock that the young boy is hugging him and is not afraid of him or is too distracted by his other emotions to be afraid of him. This was very new to Kyubi and he did not know what to do especially when the young blonde is crying his tears out at his right hand fur. He then took his left palm and gently stroked the blondes head to comfort him and felt pity for his misfortune. This lasted for nearly two hours till the blonde was out of tears and began to calm down.

For Naruto, this was so much to take in. He was happy, depressed and angry at the same time; happy that his parents loved him and wanted to take care of him, depressed because his mother died because she thought that she lost him and his father didn't protect him. He was also very angry because his father abandoned him for his village, the same village the tortured him and hurt him. Naruto understand the reason why he was abandoned and knows that his father really do love him but he can't let himself to forgive him for all the pain and sadness he had to endure in his life. He hated him for what he did and doesn't want to meet him again.

Naruto also felt a great deal of sadness knowing that he is alone and that no one will be there for him. He is even thinking of continuing his suicide so that maybe he can meet his mother again. She must be lonely like him and missing him a lot.

Naruto then looked at the Kyubi's eyes with a look of sadness and begging for comfort. The Kyubi just stared back at him and gave him a look of pity.

"**I know what you are thinking, but I would advise you to not do it. I will not stop you because this is your choice. However, do you think your mother would be happy if she found out you gave your life for her even when she was so willing to give her life for you. She would be sad if you did that and would have wanted you to continue surviving. You might be able to meet her someday but I would advise you to keep surviving.**" said the fox to the young blonde.

The blond have the Kyubi a look of sadness but nodded slowly to the giant fox with tears in his eyes.

"**Child, do you want to see what your mother looks like?**" said the fox in a gentle voice

Naruto looked at the giant fox with wide eyes expressing his shock.

"**Kushina was my former container so I can show some of my memories of her life when I was inside her. This way you will be able to know what she looks like and what kind of person she is. But I must warn you; whatever you see is not real no matter how much you would want it to be. It is just a memory so I am only going to show you this when I think it should be shown. When you are older I will tell you why I cannot show you this all the time you want to. Do I make myself clear?**" said the Kyubi in a very serious tone to the blonde who cringed due to the seriousness of the demon.

Naruto having a desire to know what his mother his mother is like nodded eagerly to the fox. He was really desperate to know what his mothers' life was like when she was alive.

Naruto then found that the environment he was in began changing from a sewer like environment to that of an outside of a small house with a large garden. In the large garden there is a young woman in her early twenties sitting on a chair while stroking her enlarged belly while humming a soft melody. The young woman in front of Naruto was very beautiful; she had a fair colored skin with a feminine built, an oblong shaped face with violet eyes and a beautiful fiery red hair. The young woman was wearing a simple one piece long white dress that reaches all the way to her ankle. She was looking at her belly with eyes that showed her happiness and small sweet smile while humming a relaxing melody.

Naruto walked to her at the center of the garden and stood in front of her. He found out that the woman in front of him doesn't know that he is there. Which Naruto thought was obvious because all he is seeing now is just a memory. As he studied the young woman in front of him he found out that she was very beautiful and presumed that this was his mother and the one inside her belly was him. He began to look at her with a happy and sad expression for over ten minutes, trying to adore and memorize her every features; her soft face, her caring eyes, her small lips, her bright red long hair. He wanted the picture of her mother in his memory and imagines what it would be like when she is alive.

Naruto then begins to cry knowing that her mother died and he can't do anything about it. He then runs forward to hug her hoping that she will come back so they can be happy again but he just went pass through her. He desperately tries to do it again and again. He only wanted his family back so he doesn't have to lonely and sad anymore but more than anything he wanted to be loved and make them happy. He then kneeled beside her mother and cried while looking at her mother hoping that she would acknowledge that he is beside her.

Kushina then looked at her belly with a happy smile and caring eyes "Naruto, can you hear me? This is your mother speaking. I just wanted to say that I can't wait for you to be born. I always wished to have a family so thank you for fulfilling my wish. I hope we can all love each other when you are born. I promise that I will always protect you and support you no matter what happens or what you do. I will always do my best to help you every time you fall or feel lonely. Remember that your mother and father loves you very much." said Kushina while looking at her belly and stroking it.

She continued to hum her melody and enjoy the view at the garden. Naruto who was beside her began to smile and cry at the same time. He just wanted to stay there, even though he knows that it is not real but just a memory. He believes this memory is better than the real world where he would be hurt and tortured. He kept looking at his mother and hoping that she would become real and hug him and tell him everything will be alright. He stayed there for an hour praying for her to be real and studying every detail of her mother and imagines what it will be like if she was alive.

After a few more hours, the environment that Naruto was in began to fade which made the young boy cry and desperately tried to grab his mother hoping that she won't disappear but it just went past her. The young boy cries and desperately tires again and again but her mother and the environment just turned black and returned to the sewer like environment. He kneeled on the floor crying because he can't do anything for her mother.

The Kyuubi who was looking at the blonde the whole time felt a lot of pity for the young boy. After a few minutes passed so the young blonde can calm down again. The fox approached the blonde. "**Naruto, what you saw is not real but a memory. Remember what I told you?**"

The young boy just nodded slowly while his head is still looking at the ground.

"**Good, now I would like to do some things for you**." said the Kyuub.

Naruto then looked at the Kyuubi with a sad expression and teary eyes. Which made the Kyuubi cringed in the inside.

"**Because no one is teaching you anything. I would like to be your personal teacher. Which means that every time when you are asleep or alone I will be teaching you everything I know in fields such as language, science, math, geography, history, and other practical lessons. Do you accept this?**" the Kyuubi said while looking at Naruto.

Naruto was shocked but smiled a bit after to the Kyuubi for trying to help him. He nodded to the giant fox with some tears in his eyes.

"**Okay, for now you must rest. You will have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.**" said the Kyuubi while letting one of his tails go to Naruto to be used as a bed.

Naruto looks at the tail going under him and trips him so he would lie down to it. He then looked at the giant fox who gave him a small smile which he returned back. Naruto slept after a few seconds later, too tired from all the crying and shock that he received.

The Kyuubi looked at the sleeping figure of the young boy with a sad look. He wanted to help the blonde in any ways possible and felt pity for him to be suffering so much in such a young age. Even though the giant fox is known to be sadistic or cruel, he can't help but feel sad towards the young boy. He has suffered a lot in such a young age by his own species which only made him even more disgusted towards the human race. He then tries to go to sleep as well but kept his eyes looking at the blonde before he closed his eyes to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Good day, thank you for reading my story so far. This is my first story and i will continue this till the end. The story will be very long because i planned the entire story already and it should be over 300,000 words when i am finished with it. If you have any advice for me, please send me a message anything will help. I am also trying to look for a beta reader so if anyone is interested in helping me beta read this story please PM me. Thank you very much and i hope you enjoy this new chapter.**

I do not own Naruto

**1 Year Later**

One year has passed since Naruto meet the Kyubi for the first time. Since then he had been living in the streets and savaging what he can to survive with barely enough to eat. He would try his best to find a warm shelter during winter which would often mean staying under a box or using newspaper as a blanket and would often sleep inside the forbidden forest because in Narutos' experience it is a lot safer for him than anywhere in the village. In the one year, Naruto has been stabbed, burned alive, skinned alive, vivisected, raped, tortured, drowned, crucified, starved to death, bones popping out due to blunt force and limbs being cut off. Each of these happened multiple times and the next one would be more painful than the previous. The mob would go more brutal towards their torture towards him as time goes by.

However, there were some times when a mysterious person would stop the mob from hurting Naruto. He would not kill the mob but would scare them away by intimidation and killing intent. He would then leave Naruto be when he thinks the young boy is fine or would bring him to a hospital and would stay there till he is treated properly. The mysterious person that saved Naruto wears a black ANBU uniform and wolves mask that covers his entire face. The only thing Naruto knows about him is that he is a male due to his physic and he had black hair. The masked man would never speak to him and would always leave before he gets close to the ANBU to thank him for his help and wants to meet him.

Naruto also asked the Kyubi if he knew the person who saved him but it appears that the person was very good in hiding his chakra signature so it is near impossible to identify who the person is. Another strange occurrence was that in about twice a week, when he was sleeping in the sewers or a dark alley or the forest of death there would be a basket of foods, money and necessities such as clothes beside him when he woke up. The basket did not leave any notes of who made it but Naruto was very grateful to whoever did this because it really helped him survive and it made him feel better knowing that there are people who still care for him out there.

He would also needed to hide the basket because there were some days when the villagers would find it and accuse him of stealing. They would give him even more beatings and call him demon or monster. So since then, he always hid it under a large tree at the Forest of Death where it would be safe.

After the torture, the Kyubi would try his best to heal the boy as fast as possible so he won't feel the pain any longer. The giant fox would always try to comfort him but would feel guilty for not being able to stop Narutos' pain. Kyubi would often talk to Naruto so that the young boy would not be lonely and to keep his sanity because he had no friends or any acquaintances to comfort him. The fox soon began to treat Naruto similar to how an older brother would treat their younger brother and would try to act like family which Naruto thanked the Kyubi dearly. Naruto viewed the Kyubi as family and would do anything to make him proud.

During the year, the Kyubi also helped with Narutos' education and began to teach him everthing the Kyubi knows that could be useful to him. The demon would teach him the sciences, language, math, philosophy, life lessons, social sciences, etc. What shocked the Kyubi was Narutos' ability to understand everything he told him with just one explanation. He seems to be absorbing all the information the Kyubi is giving him like a black hole absorbing mass. The only conclusion the Kyubi came up with is that Naruto is a genius prodigy who has a deep desire of knowledge.

Naruto is currently in a dark alley at the slumps of the Konoha. He is currently living under a box wearing nothing but a bloody broken orange cloth that only covered his private area, his blond hair all messy and greasy with some hints of blood, his skin is oily with dirt everywhere. He is also very hungry because he wasn't able to find food for the past 5 days and stayed inside the box to rest to conserve his energy.

"Hello?" a young female voice called

Naruto didn't respond to the voice because he thought that the girl was talking to someone else

"Hello? Is there someone inside there?" said the girl while poking the box where Naruto resides.

Naruto then found out that the girl was talking to him so he immediately got out of the box which shocked the young girl and began to run away as fast as he can. He is afraid that the girl would hurt him like everyone else does when they found out where he is and tried to find a place to hide but the girl kept following him and telling him to stop.

"Please stop! I just want to talk to you!" said the young girl

They continued to run for the past 5 minutes around the narrow alleys. Naruto then slowed down due to his weakened state because he hasn't eaten for over five days. He then went to complete stop due to exhaustion and began to lie down in a fetus position with his eyes closed ready to take another beating.

He then heard the footsteps of the girl coming closer to him till she was just about two feet away from him. He can also hear her panting due to the running.

"Hello?... Why did you... run like that?" asked the young girl between her breaths

A minute passed by and the young blonde didn't talked. "Are you alright? Why are you so quiet? Are you hurt?" said the girl in a worried tone

Naruto then opened his eyes because it appears that he is not going to get a beating and the girl was asking questions and sounded like she is actually worried about him. He can sense that she has only concern and pity towards him without any violent intentions. This is due to being the Kyubi's container he can sense emotions especially negative ones which gave him a head start in escaping from mobs.

"You're not going to hurt me?" said Naruto to the girl

"Of course not. Why would I hurt a young boy like you?" said the girl looking at the blond

Naruto then raised his head to look at her to study her features. She has a slender body with long brown hair and eyes, plus fair skin. She is wearing a white robe with the sleeves folded, a sort of dark blue apron with ribbon ties at the top and a bright white bandanna. She also appears to be carrying a giant basket at her back. The young girl appears to be eight or nine years old and was giving him a concerned look.

"Because most people who found me give me a beating" stated Naruto with a sad look in his eyes which made the girl appear sad as well.

"Don't worry I am not here to hurt you. I just wanted to ask you what you are doing under the box?" said the girl with a sad look

Naruto then looked down with shame and hesitated. "That is because I live in the box. I don't have a home and the box helps me hide myself from people who wants to hurt me and gives me a roof so I won't be too cold when it snows or rains." said Naruto.

The girl then looked at the blond with a shocked expression with a feeling that someone just stabbed something at her chest and began to cry. She went forward and kneeled so he can hug the boy who is still in a fetus position. She didn't care if he smell horrible and that he was very dirty, she just wanted to comfort the young boy who appears to be in so much pain and felt a great amount of pity of him.

When the girl hugged Naruto, shock was just an understatement to how he felt. He had never been hugged by anyone before besides the Kyubi inside his mindscape when he uses a human form. The hug lasted for about five minutes till the girl broke the hug to whipe of the tears on her eyes.

Naruto kept looking at her and was currently speechless because he does not know what to do in this type of situation which is very new to him. The girl looked at his expression and began to smile a bit.

"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. It must have been a shock to find a random girl who just passed by hug you all of the sudden." Said the girl with a sad smile

Naruto just gave a single small nod to the girl infront of him

"My name is Ayame, I work with my father in a ramen shop not too far from here. What is your name?"

"Naruto... Uzumaki Naruto" said Naruto buy being hesitant at first.

"Naruto" said Ayame as if testing the sound of his name. "That is a nice name." she said with a smile. Which Naruto replied by giving a smile to her as well.

Ayame observed the young blonde in front of her and can tell that he hasn't eaten for days. "Naruto do you want to come with me to the ramen restaurant that me and my dad work? You look like you need something to eat."

"What is a ramen?" asked Naruto tilting his head a bit

"Oh, A ramen is a hot delicious food. It consists of a hot soup mixed with meat, vegetables, and rice. It is one of the best foods in the world, you should really try it." said Ayame with passion on her voice.

"So, do you want to come with me to get something to eat? My dad would be happy to make a big meal for you." said Ayame in a hopeful tone. She really wanted the young boy to follow her so she can take care of him.

Naruto paused for a while, being unable to answer that question as many thoughts are occurring in his head. She might just want to lure him to a place where she can torture him which happened to him a couple of times. However, when sensing the emotions of the girl, it appears that she has not ill intentions towards him so he hesitantly nodded to the girl.

Ayame smiled and then extended her hands to Naruto so that he can hold on to it so he can stand up.

"Now Naruto, is it okay for you if you can get inside the basket because by what I heard of how people in this village is treating you. It would be a lot safer if you come to the restaurant without the villagers knowing where you went. Is it okay?" said Ayame

Knowing the reasoning behind it and understanding that it would be a lot safer. Naruto went inside the basket which was big enough for him due to his small size especially because he is only four years old. Ayame then gently covered the basket and lifted it like a back pack. She was surprised and depressed when it was so easy to carry the boy. He appears to barely weight over 10 pounds which means he is very malnourished.

She then gently walked out of the alley to the streets of Konoha and on her way to Ramen Ichiraku. She walked slowly so that Naruto would not be too scared inside the basket. When she reached the mini restaurant where there are a few customers and went inside the kitchen to her father with the large basket still at her back.

She found her dad making some miso ramen for the customers and approached him. "Dad, I think we should close early today. There is something important I have to tell you." she whispered to her father.

The old man looked at her daughter with a confused look but then turned serious when he saw how serious his daughter was looking at him. He can tell that something really important is needed to be mentioned so he then head out of the kitchen to the long table where the customers are.

He then cleared his throat to get the attention of the customers who are all looking at him at this point. "I am sorry to inform you all but we will be closing early today. Something important has just came up so I greatly apologize for this. So please leave immediately and don't worry, the ramen you were eating right now is free of charge. I am sorry for this inconvenience." said the old man said to his customers.

Some customers left without any argument but others were a bit angry about the situation. The old man just kept saying sorry to them while bowing until all the customers left their mini restaurant. He then closed and locked all the entrances and put a closed sign in front of his shop.

He then proceed to go to the kitchen where he would meet his daughter about the important reason. When he entered the kitchen, he found his daughter trying to close the blinds, and windows of the kitchen so that no one can see what is going on inside the restaurant. She also removed all the knives and cooking utensil away and hid them. The old man then found a young blond boy sitting in the kitchen table wearing only a towel cloth wrapped all around his body. When he looked at the young boys eyes, the blond immediately faced the ground and tighten his hold of his towel around his body. This made the old man frown a bit due to the strange behavior of the boy and then looked directly at his daughter who now approaching him.

"Where did you find him Ayame?" said the old man to his daughter

Ayame gave a sad expression to her father and looked at the frightened young Naruto who was looking at her. " I found him in the dark alleys near the sewer line. He was living under a box dad." She then looked directly at her father with tears on her eyes.

The old man gave a frowning expression on his face to his daughter and looked at the young blond with a face that shows both sadness and pity. He then approached the young boy who immediately covered his entire face with his arms, afraid that the old man would hurt him. The old man then stopped when he was about two feet away from the blond to give him some comforting distance because it can clearly be seen that the young blond is frightened of him.

"Dad, I removed all the kitchen knives and utensils because he wouldn't want to leave the box when he saw them. He looked like he saw a ghost when he saw them, he looked really scared." said Ayame behind his father looking at the two.

Not facing his daughter, the old man just gave a nod to his daughter and kept looking at the young boy in front of him. The old man was giving off an angry expression and was clenching his hands which scared the young boy greatly. When he saw the scared expression of the boy, the old man immediately relaxed and gave the child a sad look.

"Don't worry, I am not going to do anything to you" said the old man while raising his hands to chest to show he meant no harm.

Naruto just looked at him and hesitantly gave a small nod to the old man.

The old man gave a small smile when he saw the nod and lowered his hands. "So young man, what is your name?" asked the old man.

The blond then looked at Ayame who was standing behind her father. She smiled at him and gave him a small nod. Naruto then looked back to the old man. " Naruto... Uzumaki Naruto"

The old man smiled when he heard this. " Well Naruto, I am Teuchi. It is very nice to meet you." Teuchi extends his right hand to Naruto who was shocked by the sudden action but calmed down immediately. The young blond who doesn't know what to do looked at Teuchi's hand and looked back at the old man while tilting his head to show his confusion.

The old man seeing the young boys confusion lowered his hand and used his left hand to rub the back of his head. " Ah. Sorry for that. I forgot that you don't know much gestures." said Teuchi while smiling.

Naruto just lowered his head a bit but gave the old man a curious look.

"Dad, I think we should feed him. He looked like he haven't eaten for ages." said Ayame who was beside her father.

The old man then looked at the skinny figure of Naruto. " Yes, of course. I will prepare a meal right away. Don't worry Naruto, I will give you one of all in the menu! Just give me a few minutes to make it." said Teuchi to Naruto who nodded and smiled to the old man.

Teuchi then looked at her eight year old daughter. "Ayame, bring Naruto to our house and to my room so that he can get himself cleaned up. Then give him some of your old clothes when you were younger, it might be able to fit him. After that, wait for me downstairs. I will arrive home shortly after I am done making the food and closed up the shop." said Teuchi to his daughter who nodded to her father. Teuchi then headed to the kitchen room to prepare the meal for the young blond.

Ayame then approched Naruto who was still sitting on the table. "Naruto, we are now going to my house now. So is it okay for you to get in the basket again so I can bring you there. Don't worry it's not far so it won't take very long" said Ayame with a smile on her face which Naruto smiled back and nodded.

Naruto then followed Ayame to where the basket was and went inside it again. Ayame then carried the basket like before and exited the restaurant through the back door. She closed the door and began to walk back to her house, acting as normal as possible while passing by people in the streets. It was a five minutes' walk till she was in front of her house and unlocked the door with her spare key. She then opened the door, went inside, closed the door and turned on the lights.

Ayame opened the basket where Naruto was and gave a signal that he can get out of the basket. When Naruto came out of the basket, he took his time to observe his new surroundings. It was a small and simple house. There was only two rooms downstairs which are the kitchen and casual room.

"Naruto, let's get upstairs. You need to clean up before my dad comes back with the food." said a smiling Ayame to Naruto. She then carried Naruto on her back due to Naruto being currently very weak and brought him upstairs. The second floor appears to have three rooms which Naruto guessed to be Teuchis' room, Ayames' room and a guest room. Ayame continued to carry Naruto to the room at the end of the corridor and opened it. When they were inside, Ayame moved towards another door, opened it and slowly dropped Naruto inside the room.

"Naruto, you can clean by yourself right?" said Ayame with a small blush at her cheeks and tensed body.

Naruto just nodded to the older girl.

Ayame then relaxed and released a small breath. She then smiled at the young blond. " That good, you should clean yourself right now. I will go to my room to get you some towels and clothes, so I'll be back." said Ayame.

When Ayame was about to leave, she felt Naruto hugged her immediately before she can even fully stand up.

"Please don't leave me." said Naruto while his face is covered on Ayames shoulder.

Ayame looked at the young blond with sadness and pity. It really pained her to see a young boy being so scared and hurt. " Don't worry Naruto. I will not leave you, I will come back immediately." assured Ayame with a kind soft smile to the boy.

The young blond then looked directly at Ayame and gave her a sad look. "You promise that you won't leave me?" asked the blond with voice filled with both fear and uncertainty.

"I promise Naruto. I will never leave you all alone." said Ayame who began to hug the young boy as well. They both hugged each others for nearly two minutes.

"You should get cleaned up now. Don't worry, I will be back" said Ayame.

Naruto slowly nodded to the older girl. Ayame then stood up and slowly closed the bathroom door that Naruto was in and proceeded to her room.

**35 Minutes Later**

Naruto came out of the bathroom feeling more refreshed than ever before in his life. He has never really showered before. Often he would clean himself by using the dirty water that runs in the sewer lines. The water was dirty but it was a lot better than the smell of his own rotten blood in his body.

When Naruto walked towards the single bed at the corner of the room, he found some towels, a small white pants and a t-shirt. Happy that he has some clothing, he immediately dried himself and wore the clothes.

Ayame then appeared at the door about a minute later and looked at Naruto with his new clothing. She froze and wide opened her mouth with a star at her eyes. She quickly approached Naruto and hugged him tightly. "Your soooo cuteeeeee! I am so glad my old clothes can fit you. I was a bit worried that you won't like it." said Ayame

Naruto, who was initially shocked because of the sudden movement smiled afterwards when he heard what Ayame said.

She released him from her hug a couple of seconds later and looked directly at his eyes with a large smile on her face. "My dad just arrived ten minutes ago and the ramen is already prepared downstairs. Let's go down together." said Ayame and gave a gesture that she would carry him.

Naruto immediately went to her back so she can carry him. He really like the feeling of someone carrying him like the way Ayame did. It felt as if he has a family and he is being carried by his mother. She cherished the entire moment when Ayame went downstairs to the kitchens' dining room and didn't want to let go. When Ayame arrived to the dining room, she slowly lowered herself to drop Naruto at the chair. Inside, Naruto felt sad for being separated from Ayame but tried his best to not show it.

The young boy then looked at the table because he could smell a lot of different odors coming from it and was shocked with the amount of food that is present in the table. He was speechless with the amount, never in his life did he saw this much food. In the table there was fourteen different types of ramen all around the table.

"You can eat. It's okay." said Teuchi who appeared out of the kitchen and was smiling at Naruto. Naruto then faced Ayame for a confirmation and received both a nod and a smile from her.

He then ate the ramen with the chopsticks beside his bowl. He felt glad that he was able to learn how to a chopstick from Kyubi a few months back. When he took his first bite, he dropped his chopstick and cried his tears out. This shocked both Ayame and Teuchi. They both approched Naruto to try to comfort him.

"Naruto, what's wrong? Are you okay? Is the ramen bad?" asked Ayame with a very worried tone.

Naruto just shook his head while continuing to cry. "No... Its sooo good... Its soo good that I don't want this to be just a dream... I don't want this to end...I am afraid all of this will go away and you won't be here... That I will be all alone again... Please be not a dream... Please... I don't want to go back... Please..." said Naruto while looking down.

Ayame immedietly cried as well and hugged Naruto so that she can comfort him and to show him that it is okay. Teuchi also cried and kneeled beside Naruto to hug him as well. This lasted for a long time, but Naruto didn't care how long. It was the first time he felt happiness.

After the hug, Naruto ate as much ramen as he can. It was the most delicious thing he have ever ate, he cannot even imagine anything better than it. It was also his first time to ever feel full and eat as much as he wants. After the meal, Naruto fell asleep on his chair due to all the exhustion of that day.

Ayame then carried Naruto to Teuchis' room to his bed while Teuchi insisted that he will sleep in the couch downstairs. For the first time in Narutos' life, he was able to sleep comfortably.

**Please review. I would want to know your thoughts about this story so i can improve it. Its okay if it is a bad one as well, at least i am learning from it. If you have any good ideas for this story, please inform me and i will try my best to fit it in the story. Thank you very much for reading it.**

**Next chapter will be posted in 3 to 7 days. Its a fast update.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys. This is my new chapter, i hope you enjoy it. I also want to inform you that i slightly changed the events of chapter 2 in this story. Mainly the speech of Danzo in the council because i receive a review that says that its too unrealistic which i must admit it really is. So i made a more realistic reason based on Psychology biological level of analysis or a condition similar to that of compassion fatigue. This will be a sad chapter so i warn you right now. Please review, and if you have any ideas you want to share with me please PM me. Thank you.**

**9 Months Later **

Ten Months have passed since the day Ayame found Naruto in the dark alleyway. Since that day, Ayame and Teuchi treated the young boy as if he was as if was a member of their family. When he woke up the next day in Teuchis' room. Teuchi told Naruto if he wanted to be adopted by him and he would be glad to accept him as a member of their family. It was the happiest thing that ever happened to him and immediately accepted it without a single hesitation.

Since then, Naruto lived a peaceful life with his new family. He had their affection and could not asked for anything more. He also changed his appearance so that when he is outside with his family, the villagers will not recognize him. He dyed his color brown, wore violet contact lens and used some of Ayames' makeup to conceal his scar like whiskers. The Kyubi was also happy for the young boy for being able to find some peace for himself and continued to teach the boy every night.

The young boy is now currently in a park with his older sister playing a game of hide and seek.

"Narutoooo, oh Narutooo" said Ayame teasingly while looking around the park.

"Where could my little brother be?" said Ayame to no one in particular because they were alone in the park.

Ayame then spotted some movements behind a large tree to her left. She smiled and began to approach it slowly. "Oh, where is my little brother? I hope I can find him, I made his favorite ramen today." said Ayame in a fake concerned voice.

Naruto who is still currently behind the tree immediately peaked to see where her older sister is but could not find her. This confused him but he stayed in his position, thinking that it was a trick from his onesan. Then someone gave him a tight hug from behind.

"Gotcha." said Ayame with a mischievous smile on her face and began to tickle Naruto till he was lying on the ground due to his laughter.

"Okay onesan, hahahaha! You win, hahahahaha! You found me, hahahahahaaaa! I can't breathe, hahahahah!" said Naruto between his laughs.

"What's the magic word?" asked Ayame in a teasing voice

"Please onesan! hahahaha" said Narto

Satisfied, Ayame then stopped her tickling and helped Naruto stand up. " Well, that wasn't so hard." said Ayame

Naruto then immediately hugged Ayame "I love you onesan!"

Ayame smiled at her little brother and hugged him back. "I love you to Naruto."

"Can we play it again onesan?" asked an eager Naruto

"It's getting dark now Naruto, we can do it again tomorrow."

"Okay onesan!" said Naruto while giving his older sister a big smile.

Ayame smiled back and ruffled her little brothers hair. "Let's get back home. You must be hungry now and dad might be worried if we stay out too late." said Ayame.

"Okay" said Naruto and quickly grabbed Ayames hand so they can walk back home together.

Ayame and Naruto both talked to each others on their way home. Ayame would tell Naruto jokes and Naruto would tell her the new things that he learned in Teuchis' library. They were able to arrive back home just after sunset.

Teuchi was in the kitchen when they entered from the front door. "So how was the day of my best son in the world and the most beautiful daughter a father can have? Did you all had fun?" said a smiling Teuchi preparing for dinner.

"We had lots of fun. Onesan is the best! We played tag and hide and seek!" said Naruto to Teuchi who smiled at the boy.

"Well, I hope that both of you are hungry. I made your favorite, Miso Ramen!" Teuchi then grabbed three large bowl with miso ramen and placed it on the table.

"Yaayy! Onesan lets eat!" Naruto grabbed Ayames' hand to go to the table.

"Slow down Naruto. You might get hurt." said a concern Ayame while being forced to follow the boy.

The family ate together that day while taking to each other's how their day went so far. Naruto told them the new things he learned in the library, Ayame told her father how her school day was and Teuchi told the two how his work was doing. It was a peaceful day, something that Naruto would cherish greatly.

**The Next Day**

Naruto woke up early on the morning of February 13. He got up and went to the shower to clean himself. He always like the feeling in the shower when the warm water touches his skin, how it would make him relaxed and happy that he finally have a home. He also would control himself so that he won't use too much due to the water bills. When he was done, he grabbed a black pants and orange shirt to wear and went downstairs to help Ayame to make breakfast for his father.

Naruto entered the kitchen and found Ayame with her pajamas cooking what appears to be pancakes in a pan. "Good morning onesan!" he then hugged Ayame from behind while she is still cooking the pancakes.

"Naruto! Don't do that, you might get hurt" said a shocked Ayame

"Okay onesan. Can I help?" asked a very eager Naruto.

Ayame smiled at her little brothers behavior. "Okay, help me get the sausages in the refrigerator."

Naruto went to the refrigerator and grabbed the sausages. He gave it to Ayame and began preparing the table with plates and chopsticks.

"Good Morning everyone" said Teuchi as he entered the kitchen with his pajamas.

Good morning otosan!" yelled Naruto and went towards his father to hug him.

"Good morning otosan. I prepared breakfast." said Ayame who also approached her father to hug him.

"Thank you very much, Ayame. Let's eat everyone." said Teuchi

The family ate together quickly to prepare themselves for the day. When they were finished, Ayame went to her room to get her school uniform. She then went downstairs to say bye to her family so that she can go to school.

"I am going to school. Bye otosan!" yelled Ayame

"Bye Ayame. See you later" said Teuchi

When she was at the door, she felt someone hugged behind her.

"Good luck onesan. Please come back quickly." said Naruto with a smile on his face but there was also hint of sadness.

Ayame turned around and gave Naruto a kind smile. She then hugged her little brother. " I will come back as soon as possible. Don't worry, we will play hide and seek again soon." said Ayame

"I love you onesan" said Naruto when he let go of the hug so that Ayame won't be late for school.

I love you to Naruto. I will see you when I come back." Ayame said and proceed to the door so she can go to school.

Naruto stood in front of the door for a few minutes with a sad expression. He then went back to the kitchen to help Teuchi clean the dishes.

"Naruto, I am going to work now. Can you handle the rest of the dishes?" said Teuchi as he was adjusting his chef clothing for work.

"Yes otosan! Oh otosan, can I go out a bit? I need to buy something for someone." said a very happy Naruto

"Really? To who?" asked Teuchi with a curious look as he approached Naruto

"Secret!"

"Come on! I promise that I won't tell anyone."

"Really?" asked Naruto

"Yup, please tell me. If I tell, I will feed you Miso Ramen for a whole month!" said Teuchi

Naruto had stars on his eyes when he heard this and began drooling a bit. "Okay! I am going to buy a birthday gift for Ayame. It is her birthday tomorrow." said Naruto

Teuchis' eye widen when he heard this and started hitting himself in the head. "How could I forgotten my little girls birthday was tomorrow! Naruto is it okay if you can buy something for Ayame for me? I would not be able to when I am at the restaurant."

"Okay otosan." said Naruto

Teuchi then grabbed his wallet and gave Naruto a three thousand yen so he can buy the gifts. "I got to go now. Please buy something good for Ayame for me." said Teuchi as he went out the door, on his way to work.

Naruto who is at that kitchen began to clean the dishes that Teuchi told him to do. After that, he cleaned the entire house because he wanted the house to be clean when Teuchi and Ayame comes back. When he was done, he went towards the door and went outside. He also locked the door before going to the market.

Naruto was currently in the street walking his way to Konohas' market. Everytime he walks alone, he always felt fear and anxiety over those who near him. He is afraid that they would beat him up or hurt him like all they times the villager did before. He was also even more afraid if they ever tried to hurt his family and would rather die than let them be harmed.

When he reached the market, Naruto immediately went towards the female section of the area. He knew the section because Ayame would sometimes bring him with her to shop. He was currently looking for the shop that Ayame once found interesting when Naruto was with her.

**Flashback (A few months ago)**

"Onesan, why are we here?" Asked a curious and anxious Naruto who was holding the hands of Ayame tightly as they pass a section of the Market.

"Otosan needed some things to buy for the restaurant. So we are here to buy it for him." said Ayame as they approach to another section of the market. Seeing Narutos' discomfort, Ayame gave a sad expression but immediately changed it to a fake happy one when Naruto looked at her. She didn't want Naruto to be worried.

She looked at her list of items that she needed to buy. " Okay, we need to buy 25 onions, 5 kg of beef, 13 kg of pork, 19 carrots, 10 kg of rice, 8 kg of mushrooms, and 1 kg of tofu. Lucky we brought our own tray" said Ayame

Both siblings went towards the food section of the market to buy the listed items. When they were done with their groceries, they immediately made their way towards the exit. On their way towards the exit, Ayame stopped in front of a small jewelry shop looking intensely at the glass display. When Naruto saw this, he looked at the display to see what was getting the interest of his onesan. In the display showed a simple blue butterfly necklace with silver linings. Naruto then looked at his sister and found her sister marveling on the object but after a few seconds she gave a small disappointed look towards the it. He looked at the price tag beside the jewelry and found out that it cost 40,000 yen.

"Onesan, are you okay?" said Naruto as he looked at his older sister.

"Oh umm, yes I am fine Naruto. Let's go now to give this to otosan." said Ayame while giving a small smile to Naruto.

"Okay." said Naruto and followed Ayame to the resturant to give the ingredients to Teuchi.

**End of Flashback**

After a few minutes of roaming around, Naruto was able to find the jewelry shop from before. He hesitantly entered the shop and began looking for the owner of the jewelry store. After a few seconds the owner arrived from the from the back door.

"Good morning, what is a small boy like you doing here? Are you waiting for someone?" asked the owner of the shop. The owner was an old man with short gray hair and a face full of wrinkles. He had also had brown colored eyes.

Naruto hesitated a bit and was a bit afraid to reply back. He wanted to run out of the shop and forget about the necklace but did his best to control himself not to. He really wanted to get that necklace for his onesan and would do his best to do it.

"I am here to buy a necklace" said the brown haired boy with very little conviction.

"Really? And what is the necklace that you want to buy?" asked the old man with a curious expression.

"The one at the display. The one that looks like a blue butterfly."

"That? That is very expensive jewelry. Are you sure you have the money to pay for that?" said the old man

Naruto just nodded to the old man in front of him.

The old man looked at the young brown haired boy for a few seconds to see if the boy was really serious. When he found out that the boy was really indeed serious, he gave a small sigh.

"Very well, it costs 40,000 yen." said the old man

Naruto then took out a small wallet from his left pocket and opened it. Inside the wallet was a lot of large bills and some would say that it has as much as 85,000 yen which actually surprised the old man.

"Where did you get that much money young lad?" asked the surprised old man.

"It is my savings" said Naruto which is actually the truth. The money came from the basket that used to be dropped beside him every week when he was asleep during the time he was living in the sewers. He put all the money inside a small box under a tree at the Forest of Death to keep it safe so he can use it for emergencies. Most of his money though was gone because sometimes the mob would beat him and take all his money or shops would overprice him so much that he is only able to buy a small bread with 20,000 won. The money that he brought with him was all the money he was able to find inside the small box before he moved to Ayames' house.

"You must be quite wealthy to have that much as a savings for your age" said the old man with a curious look.

Naruto immediately got his guard in case if the old man tries to take the money away from him.

Seeing the young boy being tense the old man raised his hands to his chest to show he meant no harm. "Do not worry young lad. I am not going to steal anything from you. I was just merely curious, but I must say you have to be extra careful when carrying that much money around. Not a lot of people are as honest as I am." said the old man with an elderly smile.

Naruto relaxed a bit when he said that and also found out he was telling the truth because he couldn't sense any bad intentions coming from him.

"Now, do you want to buy the necklace?" asked the old man.

Naruto just nodded to the man. The old man then went towards the display to get the necklace that the young boy was looking for. He then took the necklace from the display and placed it inside a small gift box with red decorations and sealed it with a blue ribbon. He then went towards Naruto and hand it to him.

"Here you go young lad. That would me 40,000 yen" said the old man.

Naruto slowly took the small box and placed it in his right pocket. He then went over his wallet and took out exactly 40,000 yen and gave it to the old man.

"Thank you very much sir" said Naruto

"No problem, but if I may ask? Who do you plan to give that to?" said the old man with a curious look.

Naruto smiled when the old man asked. "It is for my onesan, the best older sister a brother can ask for"

"Well, I know that she will be very pleased with it" said the old man with a smile.

"Thank you sir" Naruto bowed towards the old man and left the jewery store.

On his way to the exit of the market, he also bought a large drawing set with the money that otosan gave him to buy something for Ayame for him. He then proceed to the exit to go back home.

On his way home at the street, Naruto had an odd feeling that someone was following him. He looked back a couple of times but found nobody was behind him so we walked forward. After a couple of minutes a deep voice inside his head began to communicate with him.

"**Child, you must run now!**" said the Kyubi

"What? Why?" asked Naruto who is confused.

"**There are four high level shinobis who have been following you for some time. I can sense they have a violent intention towards you. You must run now!"** yelled the Kyubi inside his mind

With that, Naruto began to run as fast as he can. He didn't go directly to Teuchis' house, he would never let any of them get hurt because of him. He also knew that they will catch him no matter how fast he run but he needed to hide Ayames' gift so that it won't break when they would beat him. He immediately went to the park that Ayame and he played often at.

When he was at the park, Naruto hid in one of shrub hoping that the shinobis won't find him. He also immediately dig the ground and placed the gift in it so he can hide Ayames' present so it would be safe. He then covered it and stayed put. He prayed to Kami that the shinobis won't find him.

"**Naruto move! They are close!**" yelled the Kyubi

Naruto immediately run when the Kyubi said this but was too late. A large ninja with a black ROOT uniform grabbed him from behind and covered his mouth. The black ninja then hit Naruto behind the head which made the young boy lose consciousness. Another ninja with the same uniform emerged behind the previous ninja and tied Narutos' hands and feet with a thick rope and covered his mouth with a tape. The third ninja who was holding a large black bag grabbed Naruto and placed him inside it. All four ninjas then took off the with their acquired target to a underground base in Konoha.

**Konoha ROOT base number 5**

All four ninjas are kneeling towards an old man with wrappings around his left arm and face. The room they are currently in was a dark underground training ground that consists of multiple weapons and torture equipments.

"Danzo-sama we have acquired the target as you ordered." said the black ninja with a black mask that covers his head except his nose and mouth. He also appears to be the leader of the group.

"Good job Torune, you have done me a great service" said Danzo

"I live to serve you my lord." said the Root member known as Torune.

Danozo gave a small nod to Torune and went towards the unconscious Naruto in front of the ninja. He observed the young boy for a few a minute and gave a small chuckle.

"The young boy actually thinks that he can deceive everyone by changing his appearance. Foolish, we can easily sense the Bijus' chakra in a mile away. He doesn't even know that we have been watching him for some time now and know everything about him." said Danzo.

"Yes my lord" said Torune while still kneeling towards his master

"Torune, I want you to observe the family that took care of his boy and inform me everything that they are doing." said Danzo while not taking his eyes off Naruto

"I understand Danzo-sama" said Torune. He then stood up with the rest of his team and proceed to leave the room.

Danzo then looked at his left where a ninja stood waiting for orders. " Fu, I want you to begin creating the seal that I taught you to suppress the Kyubis' influence on the boy. After that, prepare for the special training we have prepared for young Naruto the moment he wakes up. I want you to suppress all his emotions so he can be Konohas perfect weapon. We will test the efficiency of the training in four months. Do I make myself clear?" asked Danzo to a ninja wearing a white mask and black ANBU Root uniform.

"Yes my lord. It will done" said the ninja known as Fu.

"Good." said Danzo. He then head towards the exit door and went out of the room. He then proceeded to go to his office to plan for the set of exercises Naruto will take for his training. In the office he could hear screams and cries of a young child from the training room.

Danzo lowered his head while sitting in his office chair and gave a sad expression on his face. "It must be done, for the best of the entire village. The root needs to be strong for the tree to stand." said Danzo to himself.

**Teuchis' House**

It was four pm in the afternoon when Ayame arrived to her house. She opened her front door and closed it behind her.

"Otosannn, Narutoo, I'm home!" yelled Ayame as she removed her shoes to enter her house.

Suddenly a very afraid and concerned looking Teuchi sprinted towards her from upstairs. This shocked Ayame greatly, never in her life did she ever saw her father like this.

"Ayame, did you see Naruto?" asked a very frightened and concerned Teuchi.

"No. What happened? Did something bad happened? Where is my little brother? Dad, what's wrong" asked a very scared and concerned Ayame.

Teuchi began to look down to the floor. "He left this morning to buy a present for your birthday. He was suppose to come back after that. When he wasn't at the house when I arrived home, I immediately called the neighbors and everyone I know if they have seen Naruto lately." Teuchi began cry at this point. "They all said that they haven't seen him and they can't find him." said Teuchi while sobbing

Ayame was very afraid now at this point and was speechless. Many horrible thoughts just suddenly came up on her head. That Naruto was killed, tortured, beaten or eaten by an animal.

"I know that something is wrong. Naruto would never do something like this, I know. He would always come back home early to be with us. Something must have happened to him." said Teuchi while tears keep falling from his eyes.

Ayame began to cry at this point. Her legs became weak and she was trembling due to the shock. "Dad... we should call that person... Maybe he can help us find him." said Ayame

Teuchi slammed his right hand at the wall beside him when he heard this. The sudden action shocked Ayame and was trying her best not to stand up. "No! I will never ask anything from him! Never mention him in front of me again!" said Teuchi with a very angry expression.

Ayame who is currently in tears couldn't stand anymore and kneeled to the floor. " We have to find him dad... He must be so scared... I was suppose to protect him... My little brother... Please be safe... We must find him... I can't lose him... Naruto... I can't... I can't..." Said Ayame with her hands on her face.

Teuchi immediately hugged his daughter to try to comfort her a bit. "Ayame, I will do everything in my power to find him again. We will be together again. We will find him, I promise you that." said a very teary Teuchi to his daughter.

Ayame lowered her hands and looked at her father. "Promise dad. Promise that we can find him." said Ayame.

"I promise" said Teuchi. Both hugged each others to try to comfort each other's pain and are determined to find their missing family member no matter what.

**Four Months Later**

Four months have passed since Naruto went missing. Since then Ayame and Teuchi looked for their missing family member everywhere. Teuchi temporary closed the ramen shop so he can have time to get out of the village to look for Naruto. He would travel from villages to villages with a picture of Naruto and asked anyone he meet if they seen the boy from the picture. He would sleep only two hours a day with very little food and was fully determined to look for his missing son.

Ayame was also desperately looking for Naruto. She temporary stopped school and searched every inch of Konoha looking for her dear younger brother. She would often stand near large public areas such as the malls or the village downtown and desperately ask people if they have seen a young boy in the picture she was holding. She would only sleep for a few hours and some days she wouldn't be able to sleep due to horrible dreams of what her little brother might have suffered. She cries every night when there were no leads of her little brother but was determined to find him no matter what.

On the night of the fourth month is when Teuchi arrived to Konoha. He went to his house and entered it. The moment he closed the door is when Ayame rushed from upstairs to meet him.

"Otosan, did you find him? Did you find little Naruto?" Asked Ayame with so much hope and tears running down her face.

Teuchi afraid to look directly at his own daughter just kneeled in front of her while keeping his face down. "I am so sorry Ayame... I wasn't able to find him... I failed!... I am so sorry..." said Teuchi as tears keep running from his eyes and moaning due to his failure.

When Ayame heard this all her hope just shattered from those words. Her eyes were wide open, her body trembled and she immediately kneeled down as well due to her weakened muscles. She was in shock, her little brother lost forever and she cannot anything for him. She failed him as well.

This lasted for several minutes till Teuchi approached the shocked Ayame and hugged her. "Ayame, let's not give up just yet... I know he is still alive out there... We will ask that person for help, we can find him..." said Teuchi, trying to comfort his eight year old daughter.

Ayame just stayed frozen for a few minutes till she hugged her father back and cried all her tears out on his shoulders. This lasted for twenty minutes till they heard someone knocking on the door.

Both were too distracted to even bother going for the door but the knock kept coming and was getting louder and louder. Eventually they had enough and immediately opened the door to shout out to the person who is disturbing them.

To their shock, the person who was in front of the door was no other than Naruto himself with his blonde hair, blue eyes and cat like whiskers. Both Ayame and Teuchi stood frozen and speechless when they saw him. After a few seconds, Ayame immediately run towards Naruto and hugged him.

"Naruto! Where have you been... We have been so worried..." said Ayame as tears of joy kept coming from her eyes to Narutos' shoulder. Happy to see her younger brother again. Teuchi, who recovered from his shock also immediate hugged young Naruto. This lasted for a few minutes but Ayame and Teuchi found something off about Naruto. He was not returning the hug.

They both let go and looked at Naruto who just gaze at them with an emotionless expression. This scared both of them, this Naruto was very different. His eyes and face showed no expression as if a dead person was looking at them.

Teuchi quickly went in front of Naruto and hold both of his shoulders with a serious look. " Naruto, what happened? Did something bad happen? Why are you acting like this?" asked a very concerned Teuchi.

Naruto just looked directly at Teuchis eyes with his emotionless one. With a swift movement a knife appeared in his hands and performed a horizontal cut at Teuchis' throat. The sudden action caused Ayame who was behind Teuchi to scream as her father was dying in front of her.

Naruto just looked at Teuchi who was desperately trying to cover his neck to stop the blood lose. Teuchi looked at Naruto eyes one last time and gave a sad expression before his life left him.

Naruto then looked towards Ayame who was kneeling on the floor and was too shock to even run for her life or scream for help. She just saw her beloved little brother killed her own father just in front of her eyes. He then proceeded to get closer to Ayame and grabbed her by her neck while pointing a knife just behind her head. He looked at Ayames eyes and Ayame looked back at his. Even with all that, Ayames eyes didn't show anger or fear but kindness, love and acceptance.

"I am so glad you are alive. I missed you" said Ayame to Naruto with tears and a small smile on her face.

Naruto then quickly penetrated the knife behind Ayames head which caused her to die instantly. He then dropped the body on the floor without a single emotion and walked out of the house door.

Just outside the house was Danzo who is surrounded by over fifteen other ROOT ninjas behind him. They were all waiting for him. Naruto went towards Danzo and kneeled in front of him.

"It is done Danzo-sama" said Naruto in a monotone voice.

Danzo observed his new weapon with interest. "Good job Naruto. You have passed your test. You are indeed truly loyal to Konoha. You are now one of us." said Danzo

Naruto then stood up and looked directly to Danzo. " Yes Danzo-sama"

**Well that is the end of this chapter. Please review what you think about it and i hope you enjoyed this sad chapter. My next chapter will be shown in 5 days so please be patient with me. Thank you and have a nice day.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi guys, sorry for the late update but i had to do some school works last week. I have also read the reviews and I will begin to explain why it only took four months for Naruto to turn to an emotionless weapon. Actually Naruto was not exactly brainwashed but was tortured to the point till he broke. Even a very devoted person such as a very zealous person of a religion will actually only take a few days and at most a few weeks of torture till he or she will crack. I gave Naruto two months which is really a lot if you ask me. The other two months was used to manipulate and block some of his memory and emotions which was done by Fu who is from the Yamanaka Clan who are specialized in memory reading and manipulation. Because Naruto broke due to the torture, it would be a lot easier to manipulate his mind to turn him to a weapon. So many of Narutos memory are blocked and his emotions suppressed.**

**This new chapter will be also sad but it will not be very very sad like the previous chapter so I will warn you now about it now. Thank you for reading and please review what you think of chapter. I am also still trying to improve my writing skills so please be patient with me, I will improve over time. Thank you.**

**One Year and Four Months Later **

In the center of the village of Konoha lies a large red building. The building is the symbol for both power and authority over the village and is where the office of their leader resides. That building is called the Hokage tower which is standing proudly to show the other elemental nations the proud history of Konoha. However, the inside of the tower was a very different thing. Inside the tower at the top floor lies the office of their great leader, The Hokage. He is currently behind his desk sitting on the chair with his hands covering his face. Minato was wearing his Hokage robes when he was doing this and completely lost track of time. Through his expression, one can tell that he is suffering from a great amount of pain, regret, misery, sadness and self loathing. He looked like a man much older than himself who have experienced great amounts of pain.

Since the death of Kushina and the lost of his son. Minato intensified his training to great levels. He blamed himself for the death of Kushina and what his son is going through, if only he was stronger he could have saved both of them. He would train seven hours on weekdays and twelve hours on weekends. He promised himself that he will not be weak and would be strong enough to save the ones he cared for.

A year and four months have passed since the day he found out what the Root have done to Naruto. He was enraged by Danzo for acting without his consent and for the deaths of two citizens of Konoha who were very close to his deceased wife. He really wanted to kill him on the spot when he told him of what they did to Naruto and how they will continue to train him for one more year. He wanted to kill Danzo, go to the Root underground base, get Naruto and leave Konoha to live a more peaceful life so badly but can't. If he leaves, other nations will attack Konoha if they found out that both their Hokage and Jinchuriki left. Even though he loved his son deeply he can't just abandon the village. All the people in the village are dependent on him and trusts him to make the right choice. He can't just break his oath for the best of his people for his own personal desires. He also can't stop replaying the event when Danzo came to his office a year and four months ago.

**Flashback (One year and Four months ago)**

Minato was in his office trying to defeat the bane and greatest enemy of all kages, paper works. When he was nearly done with the ton of paper work on his desk, his secretary who was a woman on her late twenties with long black hair and black eyes came from the front door and walked towards the Hokage.

"Sir, Danzo-sama wants to discuss something important with your right now. He says it's urgent. He is currently waiting for you just outside the office." said the secretary.

Minato sighed" Okay, bring him up."

The secretary bowed down to Minato. "Yes sir." She went out of the office to inform Danzo. A few seconds later, Danzo arrived to the room from the front door. When the door closed, the private seals around the room immediately activated. Danzo walked towards the Hokage and bowed to him when he was five feet away from him.

"Hokage-sama, I have good news for you today." said Danzo

"And what is the good news Danzo?" asked a curious Minato looking directly at Danzos' eye.

"It is about our weapon." said Danzo with a smile on his face

Minato frowned when he heard this. " What of the weapon? What did you do Danzo?" said Minato with a hint of anger and fear both evident in his voice

"I was able to condition the young boy to be Konohas' weapon."

Minato immediately stood up from his seat when he heard this. " What?!"

"As I said, I was able to condition the boy to be our weapon."

In just a fraction of a second, Minato appeared in front of Danzo and pushed him to the wall with his arm at his neck.

"You were ordered to not touch or have any contact with the boy! Why made you do it?!"

"Why all this anger for just a random young boy you found in the orphanage?" asked Danzo looking directly at Minatos eye which is only about twelve inches away from him.

Minato hesitated for a second when he heard this. "He is just but a young boy! He is still too young to be in ROOT training!"

"You are too soft Minato. Don't you remember the oath you took that you must do everything to protect the interest of our village or are you too weak to do it. If you are then just hand that hat of yours to me. I will gladly take your place" said Danzo with a very serious look towards Minato.

Minato continued to look directly at Danzo with a large frown on his face. His anger growing every second. "Answer me this or I will kill you on the spot for disobeying the orders of the Hokage. Why did you act without informing me?" asked Minato in a dead serious voice.

"The council has decided that Naruto be placed in the advance ROOT program when he turns five years old to be trained as our weapon. They have given me permission to personally train the boy when the time comes. This decision was made a year ago and there are also papers with the approval of five clan heads and eight civilian council members of this matter."

"Why was I not informed of this?! The council is not suppose to act without my authorization!"

"You were missing that day. We have even sent some ANBU shinobis to look for you for the meeting but you were not able to be found. Due to your tardiness, the council has voted to continue without you." said Danzo in a calm manner.

"That is not suppose to be allowed! I must be present for something to be authorized!" yelled Minato

"We are a democracy and the majority of the votes said to proceed without you. Minato."

"I should have been able to find the paper of authorization for the meeting in my paper work if that occurred." said Minato with a great degree of anger evident in his voice.

"It was a secret meeting so no evidence or public papers where written of it. The papers of his action is located at the bunker where all the top secret reports are." said Danzo casually

Minato looked at Danzo for a few more seconds before letting go of his arms to free the old man from the wall.

Minato looked hard on Danzo as the old man stood strait with a serious face looking back at his leader.

"What did you do to Naruto?" asked Minato with anger and fear in his voice

Danzo didn't talk for a few seconds, contemplating if he should tell Minato the truth or twist the facts. He then decided to tell the truth because he knew Minato will find out what happened to the boy eventually. The Hokage has the power to access any information in the village and if he is caught lying then he can be stripped off from his rank.

"He was placed in a special experimental ROOT training to suppress emotions and memory for four months. Intense brutal training and conditioning were done to him nonstop to get good results. I had my top ROOT agents to personally train him as well"

Minato cringed when he heard this. He also didn't realize that he is sweating a lot and gripping his hands tightly.

"He was put in intense physical and psychological torture techniques nonstop to weaken his state of mind. Three Uchihas were also used to use their genjutsu to the boy to intensify the torture and to destroy his self-image. After that, five shinobis from the Yamanaka clan were used to manipulate and put restraints in his mind. His sensory, emotions, thoughts and memory has all been altered to be the weapon of Konoha." said Danzo with a serious tone

Minato is now trembling from the information given to him. It is taking all his will power and self control to not kill Danzo on the spot and assassinate all the council members that authorized the program.

"To test the efficiency of this new form of conditioning. We had the subject kill two civilians of Konoha who appeared to be very close to the young boy. The result was satisfactory.

Minato then again immediately slammed Danzo to the wall and also brought his unique three point kunai pointing directly at Danzos' neck. Rage and fear are the only emotions expressed in his face while Danzo just looked back at the Hokage with anger and annoyance.

"What gave you the right to kill citizens of Konoha?!" yelled Minato

"They were a necessary death. They would have reported our activities to the other elemental nations if they found out about our plans for the young boy. It is for the security of our village. We cannot have any loose ends. They have also been manipulated by the boy and allied themselves to the young boy and have shown compassion towards him. They are a disgrace to our village and should be killed." said Danzo with a frown on his face.

Minato tightened his grip over his kunai and pushed it closer to Danzos' neck. "Who were the two civilians?"

"They are Ayame and Teuchi. Both works in a small ramen restaurant inside the city."

Minato then began to tremble when he heard this and lowered his head to face the floor. He slowly lowered his weapon and his grip over Danzos' neck. The Hokage just stood there without moving a muscle.

Danzo stood up and straiten his robes again. He then looked towards Minato.

"The ROOT will continue to train Naruto for a year so that he will be combat effective. When he is done, he will be placed as a member of the ANBU division." said Danzo with anger in his voice.

There was silence for a minute before Minato spoke up. "No, I want him to be my personal bodyguard when he is done. That is an order." said Minato in a very low cracked voice.

"Very well. I shall then take my leave." Danzo gave a half bow towards Minato but the blonde did not move an inch and stayed frozen in his position.

When Danzo left the room, Minato fell to his knees and cried all his tears out. He failed again and lost his son again. "Kushina... what would you do in this stiuation?... I need you... right about now... Naruto." Minato moaned.

**End of Flashback**

Since then, Minato promised himself that he will turn everything right again and would find a way to bring back Narutos' humanity. He also can't get the image of Naruto when he came to his office four months ago.

**Flashback (Four Months ago)**

Minato was currently in his office early in the morning, looking at the window behind his table till a loud nock could be heard from his front door.

"Come in." said Minato without looking away from the window.

His secretary opened the door and entered the room. "Sir, Danzo-sama is currently outside your office with what appears to be your new bodyguard." informed the secretary.

Minato immediately looked to his secretary with a calm expression. "Allow them to enter. Bring them both in."

"Yes Hokage-sama" The secretary gave a bow towards Minato and left the room.

A few seconds later Danzo arrived with a short boy beside him. The boy was four feet three inches in height, wearing a customized version of the ANBU armor that covered all his skin and a white kitsune mask. The only physical traits that can be seen from the boy is that he had long blonde hair that reaches to his neck. He was standing strait like a military soldier and was directly looking at the Hokage.

Minato gave a sad expression towards the young boy beside Danzo. "Is he the boy?" asked Minato

"Yes, his one year training has been completed. He can now serve as the villages weapon and your personal bodyguard."

Minato gave a single slow sad nod to Danzo. "Leave us, I want to talk to him in private." ordered the Hokage.

"As you wish Minato." said Danzo with some hesitation and slowly left the room.

Minato looked directly at Naruto who was currently standing in front of him. The Hokage didn't spoke for over a minute and did his best to study every single feature the boy in front of him has.

"Please remove your mask. You don't have to wear it in front of me." said Minato with a kind soft voice.

The young masked figure nodded towards his commanding officer and slowly removed the mask he was wearing. When the mask was fully off, Minato had to restrain himself from kneeling. He felt pain, sadness and fear when he saw the eyes of the young boy. It was his eyes and they were dead, it showed not a single trace of emotion. No fear, no anger, no happiness, no sadness, no cold indifference, absolutely nothing. He can feel those eyes looking directly at his soul and slowly consuming it to a black void. Too shock to move, he stood motionless in front of Naruto.

After a few minutes have passed, Minato was able to calm himself down from the traumatic experience and tried his best to ignore those eyes looking directly at him.

Trying to lighten up the atmosphere around them. Minato tried to think of a casual question. "So, what is your name?" asked Minato

Naruto didn't say anything but it can be suggested that he is clearly confused of the question.

Minato gave of a sad sigh. "Since you are going to be my personal bodyguard, we should know each other's name so we can greet each others."

Naruto nodded to the Hokage. "My name is Kitsune from the ROOT department." said Naruto in a monotone voice.

"Okay but what is your real name?" asked Minato

Naruto didn't say anything for a while and just looked at Minato with a expressionless face.

"I know that you were taught not to give you real name to anyone due to secrecy but I am the Hokage so it's alright for you to tell me your real name." said Minato with a small smile

Naruto nodded at this. "My real name is Naruto Uzumaki." When the word Uzumaki was mentioned, Minato cringed and his eyes became a bit watery but did his best to control himself.

"Is it okay if I call you Naruto instead of Kitsune? I feel more comfortable calling you by your real name." asked Minato with a sad smile.

"If that is your wish then I shall obey."

Minato frowned a bit when he heard this. They really changed him to an emotionless weapon that will obey any orders given to him.

The Hokage relaxed a bit after a few seconds. "Well Naruto, my name is Minato Namikaze. You can call me Minato for short. I would actually prefer if you called me Minato." said Minato with a small smile.

Naruto nodded slowly. "Affirmative Minato-sama" said Naruto in a monotone voice

"_Well, at least he called me by my name and not Hokage-sama or Namikaze-sama._" thought Minato

There was an awkward silence in the room. Minato didn't know what else to say to Naruto because of his emotionless attitude and very short replies. He began looked around his office, desperately trying to find something he can use to get closer to his son. Then an idea came up.

"Naruto, do you know how to play Go?" asked Minato with a smile

The young ANBU betrayed no expression and slowly shook his head to answer his commanding officer.

"Do you want me to teach you?" asked an eager Minato

Naruto who is still not betraying any expression mentally raised an eyebrow. No one ever asked him a question when he was training. He would always answer the question or follow the orders but not be asked of something. He doesn't know what to do in this situation but curiosity took the better of him so he gave a single slow nodded to the Hokage with some hesitation.

Minato smile became deeper and quickly went to his desk to open the bottom right drawer. He then pulled out a board with a 19x19 line grid and two containers that had many black and white colored stones.

He then took a seat behind his desk and began to clean his desk of paper works. When all the paper works are removed he placed the board on his desk.

"Naruto, please take a sit and pull your chair closer to the desk" said Minato with happiness in his voice for being able to spend some time with his son.

Naruto nodded and took a seat in front of the Hokages' desk and pulled the chair forward so that he can be closer to the board.

"Now, the game of Go is actually a strategy game that requires a lot of thinking and patience. It has been around for a very long time and" Minato continued to explain what the game was, the rules of the game and how the game functions. Naruto listened intently and carefully to every words Minato said and did his best to memorize everything.

When Naruto was able to get the idea of the game, they both began to play with each others. It really amused Minato to see the confused look of his son when he does a complex strategy against him. They continued to play for hours till late at night.

**End of Flashback**

Since four months ago, Minato would do his best to make any available time so he can spend it with his son. However, due to his busy schedule and Narutos busy schedule they were only able to meet each other's twice a week. Minato had to do his duty for the village while Naruto was constantly being sent to suicide A to S rank missions by orders from the council. It pains him to sent his own son to mission with low chance of survival or telling him to do something for the village that done nothing but gave him pain and misery. He would feel scared every time Naruto would leave Konoha for a mission. He was afraid that Naruto would not come back and would have died and would constantly prayed that he would return back to him.

Whenever he would summon Naruto to his office in their free time. He would have prepared the Go board set at his desk so they could both play it immediately and ask him questions like how was his day or what was he feeling to try to get some emotions out of him but would often only get a single word answer without any emotions attached to it. He would even ask him to eat with him during his lunch period and walk with him to his house just to spend as much time with his son as possible.

The Hokage is currently in his office in an early morning was immediately brought back to reality by his secretary putting a ton of paper works on his desk. Oh how much we wished he could just burn those papers.

"Hokage-sama, I have just been informed that Kitsune had just arrived to Konoha from his mission" The secretary said as she gathered the finished paper works must be submitted today.

"Really? How is his condition? Was there any problems in the misssion?" asked Minato with a very concerned expression.

"From the report, he is fine. There was also no problems in the mission from what I have heard Hokage-sama." said the secretary while holding a large sack of papers.

Minato released a relief sigh and smiled when he heard this news. "Okay. Please inform Kitsune that the Hokage wants his report immediately. You may also leave now." said the Hokage

The secretary bowed to the Hokage and left the room to inform the secret ANBU weapon of his summon.

When Minato was alone in the Hokages' office, he looked at the picture at the left side of his desk. The picture of Kushina smiling to him. "Kushina, if you were alive you would have beaten me up till an inch of my life because of my idiocy and cowardice. I have failed you and Naruto, but I promise you that I will make this right. I will fix the damages that I have made long ago. I will find a way to fix all this and bring him back. So please keep your faith towards me like you did before. I will not let any opportunities pass by me." said Minato to the picture with a determined expression in his face.

**15 Minutes Later**

Naruto in his black ANBU uniform and Kitsune mask walked towards the door to the Hokages' office in the Hokage Tower. When he reached the entrance, he knocked on the door. He doesn't know why he had to knock but was told to do so. Was it something like a code to know if a person is on their side or was it used to create a sound that will deactivate any traps in the area? Whatever it is, he will not question it. He was trained to obey without question and hesitation. He will do what he is told and would die trying.

"Come in." said Minato behind the door.

Naruto slowly entered the room and closed the door. He then walked towards the Hokage till he is only five feet away from his desk. When the Hokage looked at him from his paper work, Naruto removed his mask and looked directly at the Hokage. When he did this, the Hokage tensed a bit but quickly calmed himself down.

"How did the mission go?" Minato asked while looking directly at Naruto with some concern.

"Completed. All targets terminated." said Naruto in a monotone voice

A sad expression was on Minatos face looking towards Naruto. "I know. I was asking about how you felt during the mission?" He really wanted to get some emotions out of him. To see his own mirror image devoid of all emotions had caused great stir in his chest.

Naruto didn't spoke and just kept looking directly at his superior with a plain expression. He was actually confused to why the Hokage would ask him questions such as this every time he meets him. "I do not understand your question Hokage-sama? I have done what was ordered of me. My personal feelings means nothing."

This is getting really frustrating for Minato. He really wanted to just grab a kunai and kill someone... anyone. "But I want to know your personal feelings about this mission? You were ordered to kill a family with wife and children. Does this make you feel anything?" asked Minato. He hoped that he would feel something.

The younger blonde looked plainly at Minato. "I did not feel anything when the mission was completed."

The Hokage gave Naruto a very sad expression and was beginning to cry. But, he quickly used his hands to cover his head so that the younger blonde would not see it.

Sensing something is off from the Hokage. Naruto took a step closer to his superior. "Is there something wrong Minato-sama?"

"No, it is fine. Just give me a moment." said Minato while waving his right hand to show that he is okay while the other hand is covering a part of his face.

A few minutes passed an neither of the two said anything to each others. When Minato was able to calm himself down and wiped the tears off his face. He looked at Naruto who was still standing in front of him.

"Naruto, do you want to have lunch with me?" asked Minato

Naruto didn't said anything and just stood motionlessly.

"I know today is your birthday and it is customary for people to celebrate one's own date of birth. I am also free for the whole day so if you like, would you like to have lunch with me?" asked Minato with hope in his voice.

Naruto didn't responded immediately but gave a small nod towards Minato. When he did that Minatos' sad expression turned to a happy one.

"Great, there is a small Chinese restaurant just a few minutes from here." Minato stood up from his chair and began to clean the pile of papers on his desk. "We should go now so that we can have enough time to talk to each others." He then went towards the door and opened it so that Naruto can get out first.

Not knowing how to respond, Naruto just nodded and walk pass the exit and put his mask on while Minato activated the security seals and locked the door.

"Let's go." said a smiling Minato with eagerness in his voice.

**Ten Minutes Later**

The walk towards the restaurant was very quiet. Neither of the two talked to each others on their walk because they didn't know what to even asked the other. They arrived at the restaurant in ten minutes. The restaurant was a luxurious type with many Chinese artifacts and paintings all over the wall. Red ribbons all hanging around the ceiling with golden images of dragons and lavenders can be smelled all around the restaurant.

Minato who is in front of Naruto, approached the reception area where there was a young lady on her thirties reading a magazine. "Excuse me, but can I have a table for two?" asked Minato. The young lady then looked at the person who was talking to her. When she saw him, her eyes widen and her jaws dropped. Unable to believe that the Hokage was in the restaurant.

Getting over her shock, she immediately stood up and bowed towards the Hokage. "Of course sir! Where do you want it to be?" asked the nervous receptionist.

Minato gave an uncomfortable look towards the young receptionist. "Well, can it be a place near a corner and with not many people. I would like to have some privacy with my guest." He then pointed at the short black ANBU shinobi behind him.

"Of course sir! Please follow me." The receptionist then quickly showed Minato and the masked ANBU to a table on the edge of the second floor where it was nearly empty. The receptionist also called some of the waiters and waitresses to follow her to where the table is.

When the two shinobis took their seat, a menu was given to both of them from the receptionist. "What would you want to order sir?" asked a nervous waitress beside the receptionist.

Minato and Naruto both grabbed their own individual menus and carefully looked at ever meal available. For Naruto, this is a completely new experience. He never ate in a restaurant before and so he doesn't know any of the meals in the menu. The only thing he ate were the food given to him by ROOT shinobis. Which were mostly vegetables and lightly cooked flavorless chicken or fish to control his diet.

Sensing the confusion coming from Naruto, Minato gave the menu back to the waitress. "I would like to order a large bean noodles for myself and a large sweet and sour pork for the guest in front of me." said Minato while giving a kind smile towards the waitress which made her face blush like a tomato.

"Y...Y...YES SIR!" said the nervous waitress with a low bow before she run all the way to the kitchen to tell the orders to the chef.

"You can all go now. I don't need anything right of the moment." Minato told to the group of waiters and waitresses who were surrounding him.

"Yes sir. If you need anything, just call us" said the receptionist from before. She and the other waiters and waitresses then left the area to give the shinobis their quiet time.

There was a few minutes of total silence till Minato broke it to start a conversation. "So, what do you think of this restaurant?"

Naruto looked around the restaurant to observe it. "It's design is impractical. This building will easily collapse if a mid level explosive tags."

Minato sighed. "Okay, let's try another question. Hmm... What are you hobbies?"

The young ANBU looked at Minato. "What are hobbies?

"Oh...Hobbies are like... They are like... They are like what you do in your free time."

"Completing missions for the good of the leaf and meeting with you."

Minato wanted to slap his head with his hands when he heard this. "Okay... I mean what you like doing when you have absolutely nothing to do? Like reading or playing."

There was a moment of silence but Minato can see that Naruto is actually thinking of what he does during his free time. After what felt like forever, Naruto spoked. "Sleeping"

A large sweat drop fell from Minatos head. "Okay... That could be one. Do you have anything else?"

It took a few seconds till Naruto replied again. "Observing."

This got Minato curious. "Observing what?"

"During my free periods after missions or training. I would stay on top of the Hokage monument observing the people below."

"What did you observe about them?"

"I observe their actions and mannerisms."

"Really? Like what?" asked a very curious Minato

"I observed that most people in this village appears to ignore others who looked injured. They pass by the people who are on the floor asking for something. I see people talking to each other's to great lengths or shouting to each others, there were also some fights during the night. In the morning, it appears that people follow the same flow of direction due to them all moving the same way. They also appear to want to go to large groups and stay with them. I have also seen some male and females having physical contact with each other's which doesn't resemble any combat techniques I have learned during my training." said Naruto

Minato became a bit saddened when he heard this. "Do you know why they do those things?"

"No Minato-sama"

It saddened him knowing that he couldn't really tell Naruto why they act like the way they do like most fathers would. But something came up on his mind when he heard the last part of Narutos' statement.

"Naruto, have you ever had an emotional attachment to someone?"

Even with the mask on, Minato can tell the Naruto was confused with the question.

"I mean, have you ever had a feeling when you meet someone or think about them? Something that you could not explain but you just know that there is a small connection between you and the other."

Naruto looked like he was in deep thought till he gave a small nod to Minato.

This got Minato really curious as to who the person is. Maybe he would convince that said person to spend time with Naruto so that he can open up more. "Who is it?"

"You Minato-sama."

To say Minato was shock was an understatement at this point. Never have he ever thought that Naruto would feel something for him. "_Could he have found out that I am his father?_" panicked Minato.

"Naruto, what do you feel when you meet with me?" asked Minato

"I don't know exactly Minato-sama. But I just felt like I have meet you somewhere and that I know you. There is an urge for me to get closer to you and at the same time to avoid you." Naruto hesitated a bit but continued. "I also feel some aggression every time I meet you."

When Minato heard this, his expression changed from curiosity to sorrow. He now knew what Naruto felt towards him. The Kyubi must have told him who he was before his memory was manipulated. The young boy wanted to meet his father to get to know him better and he was also angry towards him for abandoning him.

They remained quiet for a while till the food that Minato ordered were placed on the table. Naruto removed his mask and placed it down on the table. They then both ate together in silence. Minato lost his appetite but did his best to eat his noodles so that Naruto would not be concerned of his superior. When they were done, Minato quickly called a waitress and told her to get the bill.

After the bill was paid, Minato and Naruto went outside the restaurant. It was still early afternoon when they went out.

"Naruto, would you like to come with me to buy some flowers?" asked Minato

Naruto just nodded to his superior and followed him to a flower shop. He waited outside the flower shop for a few minutes till Minato emerged from the entrance holding about twenty Purple Hyacinth on his arms.

He gave Naruto a small smile when he saw the young ANBU looking directly at him. "Let's go. There is someone I want you to meet."

Naruto nodded and followed Minato to a large grave yard with thousands of tombstones lined up to each others. They walked for a couple of minutes till Minato stopped in front of a large tombstone with a swirling symbol on top of it.

Minato just stared at the tomb without moving a single muscle, his expression mournful. Naruto looked at the stone to see who does it belong to.

Namikaze Uzumaki Kushina

A kind wife and loving mother

Naruto heard of Kushina Uzumaki. She was the wife of the Fourth Hokage who died fighting during the Kyubi attack seven years ago. He was told that his last name was given to him as a memory towards her and the Uzumaki Clan who had a strong relationship with the Senju Clan. He also heard that Kushina died before her son was even born.

When looking at the tomb, Naruto suddenly have the urge to cry right there. He doesn't know why but he can feel a strong pressure in his chest and his heart twisting. But due to the ROOT training, he was easily able to control his condition and remained expressionless.

Minato continued to stand in front of the grave for about an hour with a mournful expression. He then placed the flowers on the ground just in front of the tombstone and folded his legs to sit in front of it.

" Hi Kushina, it's been a long time since I last visit you. I am very sorry about that, but you know how busy I can be as the Hokage right?... I can still remember how happy you were when I told you that I became Hokage. You always said it was your dream to be one and that you were glad that you dream has been achieved by the one you loved... How are you doing now?... I am doing fine right now except with those blasted paper works. Have you been eating a lot lately?... Have you meet your family there?... I missed you so much... I really wished you would be here with me... I would really need your advices right about now... Oh, I almost forgot. I brought someone here to meet with you. You must be tired of only me meeting you everytime."

Minato looked at Naruto with a sad smile and gestured him to come closer and sit beside him.

He did as he was told and sad beside his superior and looked directly at the tombstone.

"Kushina, allow me to introduce to you Naruto. You know Naruto right? The boy you kept thinking about. We often play Go together and talk to each others. Today we even ate with each others in the Chinese restaurant where we used to have our dates. Oh you would have loved to spend time with him, he can be very quiet but I can sure tell you that he is very kind. How much you would loved him when you meet him."

Naruto was confused of what his superior was saying but remained quiet and just stared at the tombstone in front of him. For some reason, he also felt compelled to say something or do something. But restrained himself from doing so.

"But enough of me talking. I will let you hear from Naruto." Minato looked at Naruto beside him and gestured him to speak to the tombstone. This confused Naruto but just nodded to Minato.

"Good Day Uzumaki-sama..." Minato placed a hand lightly on Narutos' shoulder to stop him from continuing.

"Naruto, don't say Uzumaiki-sama. She doesn't like it when people call her that. Just call her Kushina." said Minato with a smile.

Naruto nodded and looked at the tombstone again. "Good day Kushina-sama. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I am honored to be in front of the Red Hot Blooded Habanero of Konoha. It has been a pleasure meeting you." said Naruto, he then gave a small bow towards the tombstone.

Minato smiled while looking at his son and turned his head back to the tombstone. " We got to go now Kushina. But I promise that I will come and visit you soon. I will also bring Naruto with me and maybe we can have a picnic together over here... Please pray for me and guide over Naruto. I promise I will make things right..."

Minato stood up and offered a hand towards Naruto who was still sitting. Naruto hesitantly grabbed the hand and was pulled up by his superior.

"I think I have to go back to the office now. My secretary must be trying to find me again. Do you want to come with me to the office?" asked Minato.

Naruto remained quiet for a while. "Minato-sama, it is now six pm. I have to go to ANBU headquarters for my conditioning. But if you want, I can follow you." Naruto said with a monotone voice.

The Hokage looked at Naruto with some sadness again. "It's okay, you should go to the ANBU headquarters for your report and conditioning. It's more important right now."

Naruto nodded to the Hokage.

"Then I will see you tomorrow again if you are free." said Minato with a small smile.

Naruto nodded again.

"Okay. Be safe and good night Naruto. I hope everything will go well" said Minato before he began walking back to the Hokage tower.

After a minute Naruto began walking his way to the ANBU headquarters for his report.

**Hokage Office**

It was now seven pm in the evening and the Hokage is currently in his desk again working on his paper works. Everything seems to be quiet till his secretary entered the office and gave him a small scroll.

The secretary stood in front of the Hokage and bowed to him. "Hokage-sama, Danzo-sama and the elders wants a council meeting to be made today. They said it is of great importance and it has to do with Iwagakure."

Minato knew if the elders think something is important than that something must be discussed upon by the entire village. The elders also have the right to order a council meeting in case of emergencies so Minato had no choice but to accept it. "Alright. Inform all the council members that a meeting will take place in about one hour." ordered the Hokage.

"Yes Hokage-sama" The secretary left the room to inform the members of the meeting that will take place.

Minato still sitting on his chair felt something was off. He doesn't know but he had a feeling something bad will happen after this meeting but quickly ignored it for more pressing matters.

**The Council Room**

All the members of the council are now present in the meeting. They were all seated in a large oblong circle where the left consist of the clan heads and the right the civilian heads.

They were all talking to each other's of what the meeting is about and why they were called in such short notice. They all stopped their chats when the Hokage arrived to the room.

The Hokage approached his seat at the tip of the oblong table and sat down. "Sorry for bringing you all here in such short notice but I have been informed by Danzo that he has something important to say to all of us. Danzo, you may proceed."

Danzo stood up from his seat and began to look at everyone. "Just a few moments ago, I have received news from my spy network inside Earth Country that Iwakagures' army have grown much larger during the past year. If this continues up then they could be a huge treat against us and might even overwhelm us by their great numbers in the future if they chose to go against us."

"Impossible. Konoha is the greatest village in the world. How can a low village such as them pose a threat." said one of the civilian council member.

"I agree as well. We possess jutsus and technology way more advance than that of Earth Country. They will be a little threat to us." said another civilian council member.

"That may be so but if their military continues to increase in the rate in which they are now. They will have a greater chance of success of defeating us in the near future if we ever have a war against them." said Hiashi Hyuga

"This is troublesome. There is no certainty in war. Many factors govern the choice of who wins and who loses." mentioned Shikaku Nara.

"Then we have to slow their progress or weaken them so we can have the advantage." said Fugaku Uchiha

"Precisely. We cannot have a war against them or else the other elemental nations will go against us for starting it. We have to use a more concealed technique." said Danzo

"Are you talking about sabotage Danzo?" said Tsume Inuzuka

"Yes we will have to sabotage the army. They must also not wear anything Konoha so that if they die. There would be no way for it to be traced back to us. They would also be given suicide pills so that they can kill themselves if they got caught."

"But isn't this mission more of a suicide mission. We are basically sending our shinobis to their deaths with a very small chance of ever surviving." mentioned Inoichi Yamanaka

"The shinobis sent for this mission should be proud of what they are doing. They are doing the village a great service in securing our future and poition." said a civilian councilwoman

There was a few moment of silence. Everyone in the council was thinking if they really should send a group of shinobis to infiltrate Iwakagure. A mission with a very low chance of survivability of the shinobi.

"So you want me to send a group of shinobis to a suicide mission by infiltrating Iwakagure and kill as many Iwa shinobis as possible to slow their military progress?" asked Minato

"Sending a large group will increase the chance of being caught. We must send a small group to Iwakagure." said Chouza Akimichi

"I agree with Chouza and Yes, but I think one shinobi is enough for this mission" said Danzo

Everyone in the council immediately looked toward Danzo. Curious as to why sending only one shinobi.

"One Shinobi only?" asked Tsume Inuzuka

"And who would this Shinobi be?" asked Minato but deep down he know who it was but his mind was trying to deny it.

"Our very own weapon. The ANBU ROOT member code named Kitsune." said Danzo

Minatos' hands turned to a strong fist under the table. His expression remained neutral so that the council would not notice but he was currently in rage right at the moment. "May I know why he will be used in this mission?" asked Minato with a voice that barely contained his rage.

"Sending one person for the mission will give a much larger chance of infiltration but a lower chance of success. We need to send someone who has the ability to kill large amount of people to increase the chance of success. Kitsune is the perfect candidate for that. He have also survived multiple suicide missions in the past."

"But he had never had a mission like this before." informed Minato with a bit of rage.

"I agree with Danzo. He is our weapon, best that we use him as such." said Fugaku Uchiha

"He has also shown exceptional skills during his previous missions. I think he is the best choice in a mission like this." said Inoichi Yamanaka

"Using Kitsune to infiltrate and sabotage Iwakagure would actually have a much higher chance of success than any other shinobi we could possibly send." said Shikaku Nara

"But if he dies, wouldn't the we lose the Kyubi as well?" asked Minato

"That will not be a problem." Everyone looked at Danzo again. "He will not be killed. Knowing about Jinchurikis. When the container is in a near death condition, the beast inside them would temporarily be released to protect its container from death because if the container dies, the Biju will experience a painful temporary death. The Kyubi will not let the boy die." said Danzo

Minato gave a deep frown towards Danzo at this point.

"Let's just get this over with. I need to eat dinner with my family and I am very hungry. Let's just leave this to a vote." said Chouza Akimichi

Everyone nodded at this. " Raise your hands if Kitsune should be sent to Iwakagure to sabotage the army." said Shibi Aburame

About eighteen out of twenty four members of the council raised their hands to show their answer.

Minato looked at everyone in the council with a barely contained sad expression. He wanted to beg everyone not to do it and leave the boy alone. He was even willing to go to Iwakagure himself but knew they would never allow the Hokage to leave the village unless it is an emergency.

He then lowered his head. "It is decided then. Kitsune will be sent to Iwakagure to sabotage the army. The meeting is adjured." said Minato with little conviction.

Everyone in the council then left the room while Minato just sat down thinking of something. The council members paid no mind to him, they all just wanted to go back home and get some rest.

After everyone left. Minato lowered slammed his head on the table and covered the back of his head with his hands. "_Even with all my abilities, I am still useless_." thought Minato while crying.

**Wow this was a long chapter. Please review what you think about it and my next chapter will be released in 10 days if I am not going to be very busy from school. Please review and thank you for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Good day to you all. I apologize for this late update but I was very busy at school. Thank you for some of your good reviews and constructive criticism. I speed up the story a bit so in this chapter Naruto will regain his memories. I would also like to inform you that there might be some confusion in this chapter because you don't know yet the abilities of the shinobis from the Village Hidden in Shadow but don't worry. I will explain all their abilities and new characters in the next chapter. Also if anyone is willing to be a beta reader for my work, please PM me because I think I need a beta reader to improve my stories. If you want more information about this story, look at my profile page. Now without further adieu, the next chapter of Successor of Shadows. **

**Two Week Later**

A young man with a short brown hair can be seen walking towards a large military hall inside one of the many military bases of Iwakagure. He was wearing the custom Iwa ANBU uniform with a cat mask to conceal his identity but if one looked closely, one can tell that it is a henge. The said person stood five feet and eight inches with two strait swords at his back. When he entered the room, it was 1500 meters square in area and had about 4000 Iwa shinobis from what he can tell were only genins, all standing strait in an assembly line. Today was one of the many drill days that occurs every week.

It took about three days to travel from Konohagakure to Iwakagure and two days to infiltrate Iwa by observing the patrol movements of the shinobi guards. When the young blonde entered Iwakagure, he killed an ANBU shinobi who he observed for the two days while the ANBU was on patrol and took his uniform and identity by henging to his appearance. Due to his ROOT training, he is also able to copy the voice of the person he killed, which benefited him greatly in his infiltration.

Naruto then pretended to follow the exact patrol routine that the cat ANBU followed for a week to prevent suspicions for the other patrol guards. While patrolling, he observed all the schedules, movements of the Iwa shinobis and military bases.

It appears that there are over 90 different military buildings in Iwakagure. Every wednesday, there would be a meeting so all the shinobis in the village would go to any of the 90 buildings for drills or anouncments.

Naruto who is currently in his henge waited near the door. He was ordered to kill as many as 5000 shinobis from Iwa to slow down their military buildup and to weaken them. That is why he is in the room, he needed the 4000 shinobis to be locked in the room so that they could be compiled to each other's and could not escape easily when he starts his massacre.

The enclosed space of the room would be an advantage to him so that he would be able to kill multiple at a time and the limited space would limit the possible movements and jutsus of the Iwa shinobis. After the massacre, he would fight his way out of the building and to the forest. In the forest, he would be able to activate a seal in his wrist which would reverse summon him back to Konoha.

He was ordered to not summon himself back in any other place but the forest because the summon would leave a toad residue which would be traceable back to Konoha and the forest would be able to hide the residue making it untraceable.

After a few minutes, the announcement was about to begin. Naruto proceeded to line up like the rest of the Iwa shinobis in the assembly line. He knew that the announcement will last for about an hour so he will strike in thirty minutes while everyone is focused at the announcer.

An normal shinobi would be hesitant or afraid at this point, considering the uncertainty of the situation and the amount of enemy shinobis within the area. But not the young Konoha ANBU. He was trained not to feel anything, not to hesitate, not to feel fear or pity. He was prepared to do what he was ordered to do.

After thirty minutes while everyone is still focused on the announcer talking about their national pride. Naruto channeled chakra to his fingertips which instantly formed an invisible weapon made out of wind that is about a meter long.

He quickly extended his arms and rapidly spin in a fast horizontal motion which instantly killed the four shinbois around him. Each spin increased the length of the invisible wind technique which increased the amount of deaths of the Iwa shinobis.

The survived Iwa shinobis turned to look at Naruto and started to duck or jump away from the wind horizontal slash and took out their weapons. Many were now also on the walls of the room to look at the infiltrator and prepare for an attack.

Naruto slowed down his spinning motion and quickly took out the two strait swords from his back to block a right diagonal slash attack from a Iwa shinobi sword. He then immediately redirected the enemy's sword to the ground with his left sword and cut slashed his neck with the other then threw four kunais to the incoming four Iwa shinobis.

He then jumped away from his original position due to hundreds of shurikens and kunais being thrown at him. While in mid air, he used his sword to block the other kunais and shurikens that were heading towards him.

The young ANBU landed near the edge of the room and began to add chakra on his sword. He can see a thousand shinobis running towards him and another thousand preparing their jutsus and throwing weapons to support the advancing team.

He placed his palm to the ground and a large earth wall appeared in around him which blocked the multiple shurikens, fire jutsus, water jutsus and weaker earth jutsus that were heading towards him.

Inside the earth wall, Naruto quickly performed a two horizontal slash with his two swords which released two large flying wind blades about the length of the room that traveled to Iwa shinobis.

Surprised by the sudden attack from the wall and the fact that all the shinobis are close to each others because of the small room, many Iwa shinobis on the ground died while the more experienced ones were able to dodge the attack.

The alarm of the village could be heard a seconds later and Naruto knew that he had to finish this as quickly as possible or more reinforcement will arrive.

The living weapon then ran towards the large group of Iwa shinobis and began to attack all of them. Due to his superior speed, many of the Iwa shinobis were not able to keep up with his attacks and died quickly by his first attack.

He was like a blur that was killing anything that goes on its way. There was not even a second of pause. When there was a chance to attack the intruder, there would a invisible wind shield around the intruder that could block most of their throwing weapons and swords.

Naruto began to slow down and lowered his wind shield to conserve his chakra and was able to grab a explosive kunai heading towards him and threw it to a group of shinobis that exploded instantly. He blocked two swords form two shinobis from his sides and performed a single rotation while cutting the midsection of both the shinobis.

The living weapon then jumped away from his location when a large earth dragon was heading towards him and summoned a scroll from his hands and released it while in mid air.

In the scroll, hundreds after hundreds of weapons can be seen coming out from it and being thrown in all directions. When Naruto landed, he again went towards the Iwa shinobi while dodging the weapons being thrown everywhere in the room from the scroll.

Naruto decapitated two shinobis in front of him and grabbed the arm of the shinobi behind him that was trying to stab with a kunai and used him to be a human shield to block the ten kunai being thrown at him. He then threw four explosive tag to different group of shinobis and created a fire wall in behind him to block a water release jutsu and used his sword to block and kill another shinobi that tried to attack him at the side.

In the corner of his eyes, he can see that a large group of reinforcements are about to enter from the main entrance of the room. He quickly ran in front of the entrance and performed a very large fire release jutsu from his mouth that enflamed most of the reinforcements due to the long narrow corridor outside the entrance. While still performing the fire jutsu, he moved his head around towards the room to burn the other shinobis that were about to attack him from behind.

The young ANBU then dodged a vertical slash at his side and grabbed the hand of the shinobi to twist his hand and take his weapon then perform a diagonal slash to his shoulder and threw his weapon to another shinobi coming to him. He then dodged a stab in front of him by spinning around the attacker and rotated his neck with his hands and blocked the attack of another shinobi with a kunai and kicked another shinobi behind him and stabbed the one in front of him at the neck. He ducked to dodge another set of surikens and sent a hundred wind shurikens towards a group of attackers. He then proceed to kill the next group of Iwa shinobis closest to him.

He continued to fight for a minute till he heard a loud bang at the roof of the building and had to dodge a large rock falling towards him. When he looked up to see what it was, he saw a very short and old flying shinobi with a triangular beard and moustache with angular corners. He also had a big red nose with thick eyebrows and a bald head with white hair at the back. He was looking at Naruto with a furious expression.

"So you are the one that has been causing all this noise tonight!" The old man then looked at the surroundings of the room and can see that entire floor is filled with blood with thousands of bodies of Iwa shinobis lying scattered around the young ANBU.

With a deep angry frown, the old man looked directly at Naruto. "You! You will pay for this!". The old man then released three large earth, wind and fire jutsu towards Naruto.

The disguised blonde immediately jumped away from the attack and landed on the wall. He then ran on the wall towards the flying old man near the roof and tried to perform a horizontal slash at his midsection.

The old man easily dodge the attack by quickly flying below it and immediately released a powerful wind jutsu from his body to all directions. This pushed Naruto back with such force that when he hit the wall, a small crater was formed. The young ANBU then fell from the three stories crater to the floor. He is currently suffering from broken bones all over his body and ripped apart muscles from every limb and was currently lying with his face on the floor. There was blood everywhere due to a large earth was stabbed through his stomach.

"Hmp. You think a low ninja like you can defeat can defeat me. The Onoki, The Tsuchikage of Iwa. You're a century too early to be able to face me." said the proud Onoki.

Naruto then slowly and painfully raised from the floor. The wound was beginning to heal and the sound of broken bones could be heard as they are beginning to relocate themselves. He stood sluggishly and placed both his hands at the large sharp rock that stabbed him at the stomach. As quickly as he could, he pulled out the large rock from his stomach as fast as he can while giving off a loud scream of pain.

He covered his wound to keep as much blood as possible as his wound is healing and looked at the Onoki. Onoki was shock with the sudden display and was even more shocked when he saw the eyes of the masked intruder. They looked empty as if he had nothing to hold on to or stand for. The intense gaze nearly made him tremble but he resisted the urge and quickly formed a powerful dust release jutsu and threw it at masked shinobi.

Currently too damaged to move and still in the process of healing. He just stood while a bright cubic shaped jutsu was heading towards him. He quickly raised two of his hands in front of him and released a wind and fire combination jutsu which formed a very large flame towards the dust release in a desperate attempt to stop it.

The dust release didn't stop even after the powerful wind and fire jutsu but was able to explode about eight feet away from Naruto. The explosion pushed Naruto through the wall with such force that he pass through it and was thrown off outside the destroyed building.

The living weapon was unconscious and was falling towards the forest beside the building where he was thrown off. He was about thirty stories above and was accelerating rapidly to the ground till he fell to a deep river in the forest.

After a few seconds the body of Naruto was floating on the river and was being moved by its strong currents. The river was heading deeper into the forest in a very fast speed till the body of the boy could not be seen due to the shadows of the trees at night.

**Near the Border of Earth Country**

Two unknown individuals were walking deep in the forest at night. They were both wearing the same clothing; black boots, black pants, black gi, black gloves, black belt with multiple tools, a black mask that covers everything but the eyes and two ko katanas at their back. They both appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties. The only difference one can see were their height. One of the individual was five feet ten inches while the other one was 5 feet nine inches.

They both appear to be looking for something based on how they are looking around their surrounds.

"Tell me why again we are doing this?" asked the taller individual.

The shorter individual sighed "Please refrain from talking, we could be heard. If you have something you want to talk about then please use your telepathy to communicate with me."

"I know, but it is a lot harder to communicate through telepathy than just talking. I can also sense that there is no one around within our one hundred meter radius. So we are safe to talk."

The shorter one remained quiet to think for a while. After a few seconds he agreed to his partner."Alright and to answer your question again. We are here looking for the meteor that was reported to have crashed here yesterday. Our astronomy division wants it so they can study it if it has any valuable information about our solar system."

The taller one sighed. "Alright, but let's do this quickly. We cannot stay here too long."

The shorter one nodded and closed his eyes to sense his entire surroundings to find the object they are looking for. After a few minutes he opened it and pointed towards his left. "Over there. It is about ten meters from here."

They both ran their way towards the location and found a small rock about the size of a fist in the center of a small crater. The taller of the two slowly kneeled down and took out a small metallic canister and placed the small meteorite inside it. After that, he placed the canister inside one of his many pockets at his belt.

He then stood up and looked at the shorter one who was looking elsewhere. "We are done." said the taller one.

The shorter one nodded and the two began to go back to their village but stopped after five minutes of walking. They looked towards another section of the forest where their senses told them that there was a human life form about sixty meters away and was currently dying. What confused them was that it was moving even though they can sense that the person was unconscious.

Nodding to each other's they both ran towards the source of the life form and found themselves at the side of a large river. They could see a small body flowing with the current of the river and from what they could tell appears to be a young boy.

The shorter of the two immediately took out a long rope from his belt and tied it to his waist while giving the other end to the taller one. He then jumped to the water and swam all the way to the body. The current was strong but he was able to manage to keep his direction towards the body.

When he reached the body, he quickly used both of his arms to hold the body while the taller individual used his strength to pull them both out of the water, which was very difficult due to the strong current.

When they both reached land. Both of the black clothed individuals pulled the body away from the river to examine it.

The body looked like it went through a battlefield. The front armor was destroyed, most of the front fabric were ripped apart with blood stained everywhere, there was a large hole in the lower chest fabric and the cat mask looks like it was about to break apart.

They can tell that the uniform was the custom ANBU uniform of the elemental villages but what made them curious is that the body was giving off a strange energy that didn't appear to be human chakra.

The taller one looked directly at the shorter one who was still examining the body. "What do you think happened Yuji?"

The shorter individual known as Yuji continued to look at the body. "I don't know." He kneeled down to the body and slowly removed his mask. When they saw the face of the body, their eyes widen with shock. The boy in front of them looks like he is only seven or eight years old.

"He's just a kid." said the surprised Yuji. Yuji then turned to examine the body and could see a small portion of a tattoo on the kids stomach. He slowly took out a combat knife from his belt and cut off the remain fabric on the stomach. What he saw surprised him even more.

"Nobuyuki, do you know what this is?" asked Yuji with a barely contained shock.

The taller one known as Nobuyuki looked at the young boys stomach with wide eyes. "He is a Jinchuriki. What is a container of a biju doing all the way here?"

Yuji continued to look at the boy and was thinking deeply as to what to do with him. "What do you think we should do with him?" asked Yuji

Nobuyuki was now looking at his surroundings. "I don't know but whatever you are deciding, you better make it quick. I can sense a large group of ninjas from Iwa coming here about a hundred meters away."

There was a few seconds of silence till Yuji spoke. "I think we should bring him to our village"

Nobuyuki looked at Yuji with a serious expression. "Do you really think that is a good idea?" asked Nobuyuki

Yuji slowly carried the boy to his back and used a small rope to tie him at his back so he won't fall off. "I don't know, but I don't like the idea of just leaving a little boy to die without knowing the exact reason."

When Yuji stood up, Nobuyuki gently placed a hand on his partners shoulder. " You do know that the council will not really appreciate that you are brining an outsider to our village." informed Nobuyuki with a concern expression towards his friend.

"I know, but don't worry. If I find out that the boy I am carrying is a threat. I will kill him myself." said Yuji with certainty. Nobuyuki just gave a small nod and the two with the unconscious boy began to be consumed by the shadows around their surroundings till they disappear completely.

**The Village Hidden in Shadows**

Two dark shadowy figures began to rise from the ground till they transformed to Yuji with the unconscious boy and Nobuyuki. They were both standing in front of a large black gate made of titanium that is the entrance of their village.

The Village Hidden in Shadows is located between the top of two very large and tall mountains. It was also cleverly placed so that the shadow of the mountain will be able to cover the village during the day time. There are also no other villages within the 500 kilometer radius of the village and the area is considered to be deserted and inhabitable.

The atmosphere is not very cold because they are not really on the top of the mountain and vegetation can still be grown in their location. When one looks at the village from an outside point of view, the village will look like just a common normal Japanese village but nothing is ever what it seems.

Yuji and Nobuyuki proceeded to walk towards the gate but was stopped by five gate guards wearing black boots, robes, gloves and pants. The one at the center slowly walked forward to Yuji and Nobuyuki. He had inverted triangle shaped face with dark blue hair and eyes. His skin appears very pale with very little tanning, was six feet tall and was giving a calm look towards the two.

"Who is the boy on your back Matsudaira?" said blue haired teen in a clam voice.

Yuji sighed. "Still calling me by my last name Susumu? The boy behind me is someone I found during our mission. I am going to show him to the council where we can decide what to do with him."

The blue haired teen known as Susumu began observing the young boy on Yujis' back. "Why does the boy appears to be releasing some kind of strange chakra signature?"

"I am currently unable to explain it right now but I promise that I will tell you everything once I bring him to the council." said Yuji

Susumu looked a Yuji for a few seconds, thinking if he should allow the boy to enter the village. After some thought, he doesn't want to interfere with something that he has lack of knowledge of and he knew that he will be informed about it later. He then gave a single nod to Yuji. "Let them in." said Susumu to the guards behind him. The gate immediate opened so Yuji and Nobuyuki proceeded to go inside and towards the center of the village.

**Council Room of The Village Hidden in Shadows**

The council room in the village consist of a large square room that is about 2500 meters square in area. In the center of the room is a very large circle with a radius of 10 meters with about 60 chairs all around the circle. The only colors that can be seen in the room is either black, white, or different shades of gray.

There would be council meetings two times a day for about an hour long during the early morning and late at night. That was the reason why Yuji and Nobuyuki went as fast as they can to the village, so that they can arrive before the meeting ends and show them what they found.

The council room currently consist of about 53 different people with an age range between early 20s to late 70s. They were all discussing about the progress of the different projects that the village is conducting till a male secretary arrived to the room.

The male gave a small bow towards everyone in the room. "Greetings, I am here to inform you that Yuji Matsudaira and Nobuyuki Ishida have arrived from their mission and are currently wanting an audience with the council about what they have found during their mission." said the secretary in a bored tone.

Everyone in the council became quiet and was curious of what could Yuji found that is very important in a mission where all he have to do was to get a small meteorite.

One of the council member who appears to be in his early 40's looked at the secretary. "Bring them in." He said with a soft voice.

The secretary bowed again and left the room. After a few seconds, Yuji and Nobuyuki arrived with a small moving bed that is carrying a small young boy into the room. They stood strait and gave a small bow to show their respect.

Everyone in the council bowed back at the two and began to turn their eyes towards the small bed beside them. They were now very curious as to why a small boy was brought with them and was thinking of different possible explanation for this event.

"What do you wish to speak to us about Yuji?" asked an man who appears to be in his late 40s. He had an oval shaped face with dark brown hair and brown eyes with a lightly tanned skin complexion.

"I apologize by the sudden intrusion but during our mission of retrieving a meteorite sample for the astronomy department. We have found something that might be of some interest." stated Yuji

Yuji then slowly carried Naruto and placed him on top of a large empty space on the council table. Everyone in the council turned their attention to the sleeping boy figure that is now lying on the table.

"During the completion of our mission, Nobuyuki and I were able to sense a strange chakra signature moving along the river near the border of Earth Country. The chakra signature did not appear like a human but something more powerful so due to our curiosity, we went to the source of the signature. We found a small body moving along the river and we were able to sense that the person was still alive so we immediate saved him. When we retrieved him, we were able to tell that he was a combatant due to him wearing a ANBU uniform and that he just came from a battle due to the blood that was all around him. We have also discovered that he is a Jinchuriki based on the seal that is drawn at his stomach." informed Yuji

Everyone in the council then began to look at each other's but then quickly looked back at Yuji.

"May we know the reason why you brought a Jinchuriki to our village? You know the possible dangers that could occur when brining an outsider to the village especially a person like a Jinchuriki." said the late 40s dark brown hair man.

"I do Minamoto-dono. The reason why I brought him to our village is so that we can learn from him. Currently we have very little information about Jincurikis and their bijus. Our village is fortunate enough to be able to avoid any fights against Bijus or Jinchurikis but there could always be a possibility that we would be forced to fight one in the future. That is why I believe that we can learn a lot about Jinchurikis and their Bijus through the young boy who is currently lying on the table."

"How will you plan to do that Yuji?" asked the dark haired man known to be in the Minamoto Clan.

"I think we can try to convince the young boy into joining our village and learning from us. That way we can also learn from him."

"And what if the child refuses to cooperate and doesn't want to join us?" asked another member of the council. He had an oval face with violet hair and eyes and appears to be in his late early 40s.

"Then we will just read his mind and memory to get the information that he knows. Then remove his memory of our village and drop him far away from this location." mentioned Yuji as if it was obvious.

"Wouldn't that method be a lot safer than quicker than having the boy join our village?" questioned the violet haired man in his early 40s.

"That would be Taira-dono. But if we just get his information here and now, we would not be able to get a lot of detailed information because it is only limited to the knowledge of the boy. He also only appears to be seven years old and I doubt that he knows a lot about his condition due to most village just treats their Jjnchurikis as weapons. If he joins us, we can carefully study him and we might be able to get a lot of information from him."

"That's a big might." stated the violet haired man from the Taira Clan.

"If he becomes a treat to our village than I will kill him without hesitation." informed Yuji with a serious expression.

The entire council was quiet for a couple of minutes. Everyone was thinking about the decision.

"Anyone who accepts the Yujis' plan raise your hand." stated the head of the Minamoto Clan

Everyone in the council room raised their hand to show that they accept the plan.

"Then it is settled." The head of the Minamoto clan looked directly at Yuji. "Put the boy in the hospital till he is in good condition. When he is ready, bring him back to the council room so we can discuss the details of this plan."

"Yes Minamoto-dono." said Yuji with a small bow. He then slowly hold Naruto bridal style and gently placed him on the moving bed and went on their way to the hospital.

**Shadow Village Surface Hospital (14 hours later)**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes from his sleep. Due to his remarkable healing abilities, he was in good condition when he woke up but the strange thing was that he is not feeling hungry or a bit weaker. Often when he woke up from a deep sleep due to regenerating his damaged tissues, he would feel very hungry or weak because a lot of nutrients are needed to heal his wounds. It was strange that he didn't felt weak but felt as if he is in his peak condition.

When he recalled what happened before he lost consciousness, when he was in Iwa fighting their shinobis and the Tsuchikage. He quickly looked at his body and found out that he was currently wearing a white pajama. He also found out that there were bandages all around his stomach, two long tubes were connected to his wrist and a small object clamped on his index finger.

With a frown, Naruto quickly removed the tubes at his wrist, thinking that it was poison or drugs being inserted to him and removed the clamp from his finger. Due to removing it too quickly, blood can be seen flowing from his wrist but Naruto ignored it. He then quickly looked around his surroundings and can see that he was in a small all white rectangular room. The room consists of medical equipments that he recognized but there were also a lot of medical devices that he had never seen in his life. He knew that he was not in Konoha because the hospitals in Konoha doesn't have very white color walls and are never this clean.

When he heard that someone was approaching him from behind the door at his left. He quickly got out of bed and grabbed a scalpel on the table beside his bed. When the door slowly opened, Naruto immediately tried to stab the person at where his neck should be with his right hand.

But the person was fast enough to grab Narutos' wrist with his left hand and redirected the attack to his right while moving his right side to his left. He then twisted the young ANBUs' wrist which flipped Naruto till his back hit the floor. While still holding Narutos right hand, the person used his knee and aligned it with his elbow to prevent the boy to bend his elbow and twisted his wrist even more to inflict pain and to weaken the boys grip on his weapon. The person then grabbed the top handle of the blade and forcibly took the weapon from the young boys hand and threw it away.

Naruto then tried to use his free left arm to attack him but the person was easily able to dodge and grabbed the offensive arm at the same time. He used Narutos momentum of his attack and pulled it more which made Naruto follow his path of attack which exposed his back. The person then bended the his elbow by hitting it with his left hand and placed the young ANBU in an arm lock at his back.

Struggling and trying to break free from a counter-attack that Naruto has never seen before. He tried to put chakra in his hands to form a large wind blade to cut the person behind him with his arm. What confused him was that even when he is placing a large amount of chakra to his fingers, he cannot feel the wind blade materializing as if his chakra cannot form outside his body. In a desperate attempt, he quickly added chakra to his right arm which was free due to the person letting it go to grab his left arm for the lock. Naruto pushed his hand downwards which lifted both Naruto and the person behind him off the ground and smash to wall at his left.

What surprised Naruto was that the person behind him did not even let go of his lock. The young blonde continued to struggle till he felt something hard hit him at the back of his head and lost consciousness again.

The person then slowly stood up and stretched his body due to the impact of his back hitting the wall.

"Damn that kid was strong." said Yuji while rubbing the back of his neck. He then looked back at the unconscious figure of the young boy with a small frown of suspicion. "_A bit too strong even for a seven year old ANBU weapon_."

The person was actually Yuji was now without his mask but was still wearing his black robes. He has an oblong shaped head with a short messy blonde colored hair and a light violet eyes.

Nobuyuki quickly entered the room and observed the surrounding. When he saw the young boy on the floor unconscious, he looked at Yuji. "What happened?"

Yuji sighed. "The young boy attacked me the moment I entered the room. I tried to disarm him and put him in a lock but he was a lot stronger than I anticipated. So I knocked him out."

Nobuyuki went towards the body on the floor and carried it to be placed back on the bed. "Well at least he is okay now. The council wants to meet him immediately."

"Alright. But I think we should tie him to the bed in case he tries to go in a killing rampage again."

"Got it."

**Council Room of The Village Hidden in Shadows**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and tried to move his body but found out that he couldn't. He then quickly looked at where he was and could see that he is tied to a metallic chair.

His arms, legs, chest, and neck were all tied the chair with a strange metallic colored rope. His foot was also chained to something really heavy that would prevent him from moving anywhere else. He quickly began to struggle to escape but stopped immediately when he felt that he was not alone in the room.

When the young blonde looked up to see his surrounding, he saw that that he was in a large room with a giant circle in the middle. He is located just in front of the door behind him. There were a lot of people in the room and they were all looking directly at him.

"Hello child." said the head of the Minamoto Clan.

Naruto continued to struggle to break his restraints. He was surprised with how strong it was because it didn't even budge in all his attempts.

"I am sorry to put that on you my child but we cannot risk you escaping with the knowledge about this village. But don't worry, we will not hurt you." informed Minamoto with a kind smile.

The blonde did not stopped struggling from his restraints and continued to desperately trying to escape. He gave a deep frown towards the head of the Minamoto Clan. The young blonde then forcedly break his left arm while screaming a shout of pain. The arm bone was sticking out of his arm and large amount of blood was flowing from the large would. He then began to try his best to pull his arm so that the lower part of his arm would be separated from his upper portion of his arm so that it would be free.

The council was greatly shocked by the young boys actions. Never in their life have they ever seen a person do something like that. Before the young boy was about to break his other arm, two council members dashed towards him and stopped him by holding his shoulders and elbow. Another council member grabbed the boys left arm and tried to stop the bleeding by ripping a part of his cloth and wrap it around his arm.

The council members who are restraining Naruto had a hard time containing him due to the young boys strength. The head of the Fujiwara Clan placed a hand on the struggling Naruto which put him back to sleep.

The entire room became silent while the three council members near Naruto are trying to stop the boys bleeding and combine the boys limb to each other and wrapping it.

"What the hell was that?!" shouted one of the still shocked member of the council.

"Probably desperation but I have never seen any child do something like that. " said another member of the council with a pale expression.

"I don't think it is just from desperation. It look a lot like a conditioning. Both physical and metal in order for someone as young as him to be able to do something like that." stated the head of the Minamoto Clan.

The head of the Minamoto Clan approached the young boy and placed his hand on top of his head.

"Are you going to check his memories Minamoto?" asked the head of the Taira Clan.

The head of the Minamoto Clan just nodded. Everyone in the council moved closer to the Minamoto to hear about the boy.

Minamoto frowned after a few seconds. "Interesting .

"What is interesting?" questioned the head of the Fujiwara Clan

"There appears to be barrier in his mind. Many of his memories and experiences have been either blocked or altered. By how complex the barrier is, it must have been done by an extremely skilled mind manipulation shinobi."

"Can you break the barrier?" asked Taira

"I can. Just give me a minute" said Minamoto while he closed his eyes to concentrate.

The entire room was silent for the whole minute. All curious of what they could find out about the boy.

"UUUHHHH!" screamed Minamoto while trying to run backwards and falling to the floor due to tripping. His face was full of sweat, his eyes where widely open and had a very pale expression as if he had just seen a ghost.

At the same time, Naruto woke up and was screaming and crying. He was not struggling anymore from his restraints but was crying all his tears out. He was in a sobbing mess with running tears going all the way to his clothes. His eyes showed great sadness and emptiness. Like a person who had lost everything even the will to live. He eyes were showing sadness to the point that it looked like he wanted to die to end it all. He didn't even appear to mind the pain from losing his left hand.

Two different council members quickly ran towards the head of the Minamoto Clan to check if everything is alright while another two female council members went towards the young Naruto to help him because he looked like he is about to be chocked by his own sobs. They got a cloth from their pockets to remove some of his tears and kept saying it's okay.

"Are you alright?" said a council member helping Minamoto to standing up.

"..I'm... f..fine. It was just shocked." said Minamoto with a very weak voice

"What happened?" questioned a concerned Taria while looking at Naruto.

Minamoto did his best to compose himself but he was still trembling from his experience. "I was able to break the barrier and enter his mind." He said while looking at crying Naruto with a very shocked and sad expression.

"What were you able to find out?" Taria asked curiously.

"I was not able to see his entire memory. I only saw a small part of it because I couldn't watch it any longer. It was too painful..." Minamoto controlled his breathing and placed his right hand at his forehead to stop his headache. "I saw and felt what he had saw and felt when he was tortured when he was younger. I cannot explain the amount of pain that goes in his mind and its unbearable. What is worse is that it is only a small fraction of what he had experienced. I don't know how he is even still alive."

The entire council was curious by what they heard. It must be something very horrible in order to shock the head of the Minamoto Clan.

Taria gave a small frown. "Please show us what you have seen and felt." ordered Taria

Minamoto nodded and opened his mind to let all the members of the council to see and feel what he had seen and felt in Naruto. After only five seconds, everyone in the council were leaning onto something with a pale expression. They were all having a difficult time just breathing due to traumatic shock they had just experienced. Many were holding their head to stop the headache.

All their attention immediately went towards Naruto who is still crying and screaming. One of the female council member hugged the boy close to her chest to comfort him.

"It's okay. Your safe, no one will hurt you here." said the female council member with a tender voice.

There was silence in the council room. The only sound that could be heard was the sobs of the young child desperately trying to find comfort for himself.

The head of the Taira Clan went towards the young blonde and released all his restraints. "Put him back to the hospital so they can fix his hand. He also needs to rest." stated Taira with sad tone to the female council member who is still hugging Naruto.

The female council member nodded and carried Naruto bridal style and exited the room. The room became silent again and some of the council members are still having headaches from the experience.

"What should we do now?" asked a female member who appears to be in the Mori Clan.

"There are many factors to consider before we can make a decision." said the head of the Date Clan

"The child is in a very unstable state. It will be difficult to extract any information from him." informed a male member from the Shimazu Clan.

"It's hard to believe that the people of the elemental nations would be willing to do something like that to a small child. Then again, we weren't too different from them a few millenniums back." stated the head of the Chosokabe Clan.

"But if he joins our village, it could be risky. He could break anytime." informed the head of the Oda Clan.

There was silence again the room.

"We can stay with the original plan. But it would not be anymore just to learn about the Biju but also to help him. Are any of you willing to do this?" asked the head of the Minamoto Clan

Everyone in the council looked at the head of the Minamoto clan and nodded to him.

"Then it is settled. The boy will stay in the village and learn from us. But who will adopt the child?" questioned the head of Toyotomi Clan

A council member from the far left side of the table stood up. He had an oval shaped face with shoulder length black hair and silver colored eyes. He appears to be in his late 40s.

"I, Hisoka Hattori will adopt him." stated the head of the Hattori Clan with a calm and monotone voice.

Everyone in the council looked at the head of the Hattori Clan with a shocked expression. Hisoka was never a person who talks a lot.

"Are you sure Hattori? If you adopt him, he will receive your clan's title and it would be your responsibility to guide him." informed the head of the Tokugawa Clan.

Hisoka just gave a small nod.

"May we ask the reason why you want to adopt him? There must be a personal reason due to your quickness in trying to adopt him." said the head of the Oda Clan.

Hattori remained silent for a few seconds. "That remains confidential"

Everyone in the council just nodded to him.

"Alright, the young boy will be adopted by Hisoka Hattori and will be a member of the Hattori Clan. This meeting is finished." stated the head of the Minamoto Clan.

Everyone began to leave the room calmly but all of them were actually in a small shock due to what they have seen in the memories of the young Naruto. Hattori also left but when to a different direction from the rest so that he can go to the hospital to see his new son.

**Shadow Village Surface Hospital**

Hisoka entered the room where Naruto is suppose to be. When he opened the door , he saw the female council member sitting on a chair beside a bed with a sleeping Naruto. The female council member has an oval shaped face with long blond hair and blue eyes.

He approached the female council member. "Did anything happen?" he asked.

The female council member signed. "Aside from all the crying and screaming due to the shock. He's okay. The doctors gave him some medicine to put him to sleep."

Hisoka just nodded and looked at the sleeping Naruto.

The female gave a sad expression towards the sleeping figure. "He is so young. He is about the same age as my son and daughter."

She then looked directly at Hattori "Why are you here?" asked the female council member.

"The council have accepted that he will be a member of our village. I volunteered to become his adopted father."

The female member looked a bit shocked but smiled a bit after. "I never thought of you as a father type Hisoka."

Hattori lowered his head a bit. "Is there any relevant information I have to know about this child?"

"Yes, the doctor informed me that he will be completely healed in about a day. He has a remarkable healing ability. But..." The female council member frowned. "We have also found multiple seals located at his stomach, the back of his neck and his forehead. We recognized these seals because they resemble the cage bird seals used by the Hyugas in Konoha. The seal on his stomach appears to be restrict the influence of the Biju to the container. The one on the back of his neck is used to prevent him from acting against his village and the one on his head is used to kill him by destroying his brain."

Hattori frowned, he approached Naruto and pulled up his bangs to see the seal.

"The seals are also used to inform his village of origin if he died or not. If he does not return after a period of time, they will activate the seal which would kill him." said the female member with anger.

Hattori remained quiet for a while. "Is there a way to remove these seals?" asked Hattori

"We can't. These seals are ran by chakra which we cannot use. We also don't have any information about these seals and they appear very complex. These seals are directly connected to him." she said sadly.

Hattori remained quiet till an idea came to him. "How about if we completely change him? Will the seals be removed?"

"Change him? Like what?" she asked.

"Change his physical features, blood type, DNA, make him become like us."

The female council member thought for a minute. "That could work. The seals are connected to the boy but if we can change the boy than the seals will not recognize him and might think he died and would be removed."

Hattori nodded. "Can you please tell the doctor to initiate a blood transplant immediately. We need to do this quickly."

"Who's blood are they going to use?"

"Mine" informed Hisoka

The female member nodded and stood up from the chair. She ran her way to the door to go to a doctor immediately.

"Tokugawa." said Hattori when the she was just opened to door to leave. She looked back to look at Hattori.

"Thank you Saki." said Hisoka in a monotone voice.

The head of the Tokugawa Clan smiled towards him. "You're welcome." She immedielty ran off to find a doctor.

**Shadow Village Surface Hospital (5 Days Later)**

Naruto woke up from his deep sleep. He felt a lot weaker than usual and a lot different. As if he woke up with a body of another person. He tried to rise up but he was too weak to even get himself to sit on bed. He moved his neck to his side to see where he was.

He recognized the room as the same room when he woke up the first time in the strange village. He then looked at his body and found a lot of tubes connected to his body. There was also an oxygen mask on his face.

Scared of what it was, Naruto was about to remove them.

"I would not do that if I were you." said a calm voice at his side.

Naruto immediately looked towards the source out of fear and found an old man looking at him with a plain expression.

Hisoka slowly approached Naruto. Naruto quickly tried to back away from him due to fear. His back pressing to the wall beside his bed.

"Don't worry child. I am not going to harm you." he said calmly.

Naruto slowly relaxed when he said this. He can sense that there was no ill intention coming from the man.

Hisoka sat down on Naruto's bed beside Nartuo. "Are you feeling well?"

Naruto gave a hesitant nod.

"Good. Do you remember anything?" he asked with a more serious expression.

Naruto paused for a while and was trying to recall his past events. His eyes widen and he immediately hold his head with two hands due to a strong headache.

After a few seconds, Naruto looked directly at Hisoka with wide eyes. Shock and disbelief evident in his face. He then cried all his tears out and immediately hugged Hisoka.

Hisoka was initially tensed but relaxed after a second. Naruto's face was now pressed deeply on his chest and his black robe getting wetter due to the tears. He gave Naruto a look of sadness and pity

He brought his right hand and put in on top of Naruto's head and tenderly stroke it. This lasted for about 30 minutes till Naruto lost all his tears.

Hisoka placed his right hand below Naruto's chin and brought it up so that the young boy can see him directly at his eyes.

"What is your name?" asked Hisoka

Still watery eyed, Naruto tried his best to speak. "M..m..my na...me.. is Naru..Naruto."

Hisoka gave a small smile. "Not anymore. Your name will now be Myou. Hattori Myou."

"M..myou?"

"Yes, Myou. Not Naruto but Myou. You are now my son as I am you father."

"F..father? Dad?"

"Yes." he said calmly but with a smile.

Naruto just nodded hesitantly and lowered his head.

Seeing this, Hisoka just used his left hand and wrapped it around his new son. He used his other hand to gently stroke Myou's head. "It will be alright. Your safe now." he said gently.

"I'm safe" whispered Myou.

**Thank you for reading. Please review what you think of this chapter. My next chapter will be released I think a month from now because I am very busy with school right now. But don't worry, this story will not be abandoned. Thank you.**


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